diakron

Organisation

Diakron is a platform and studio for transdisciplinary research and practice. We establish collaborations across disciplinary backgrounds and institutional frameworks. Our own backgrounds are composed of experiences from artistic practices, curatorial practices, social sciences and graphic design.

Diakron is based on explorative research as a core value. This means, that we adapt what our practices do and what the organization is, according to the research projects we undertake.

We are currently interested in creative and explorative ways of identifying and dealing with changes, that invisibly permeate or unavoidably overwhelm ways of life. This work is tied to concerned interests in various pervasive ecological, humanitarian, existential, digital, or economic shifts. We approach these issues through experimentation with our own ways of working and the relationships we maintain through our practices.

Our modes of engagement, processes of making and research methodologies grow out of our projects and collaborations. We combine our transdisciplinary outset with an open-ended and relational approach to methodological experimentation. Outputs and expressions are not predetermined, but are developed in a responsive manner according to each research process.

Members

Amitai Romm
Artist. MFA, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Visual Art. Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna

Asger Behncke Jacobsen
Graphic designer. BFA, Gerrit Rietveld Academie

Aslak Aamot Helm
PostDoc, Medical Museion, Diakron and Serpentine Galleries. PhD, Space, Place and Technology at Roskilde University

Bjarke Hvass Kure
Artist. MFA, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Visual Art

David Hilmer Rex
PostDoc, Human Centred Science and Digital Technology at The Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University, Danish Design Center, The Systems Innovation Initiative at The Rockwool Foundation and Diakron. PhD, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Aarhus University.

Victoria Ivanova
Curator and writer. R&D Strategic Lead, Arts Technologies, Serpentine Galleries. PhD, Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, London Southbank University.

Contact

+45 30271851
email@diakron.dk

How shall the sea be referred to

Bianca D'Alessandro

An exhibition by Amitai Romm at Bianca D’Alessandro.

The earliest compass was invented by the Han Dynasty in 206 BC. It was a piece of naturally-magnetic lodestone floating on wood. For the first millennia since its invention it was used solely to determine geographical direction in divination practices. Knowing geographical direction is crucial for geomancy, a method of divination that interprets patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, stones, or sand according to markings on the ground. Geomancy practices aim to harmonize the directions of buildings, their interior and spirits of people according to divine geographical ideals. The rituals seek to inspire inner direction by aligning falling patterns to be interpreted according to greater surrounding geographies.

Named as “foresight by earth” in Greek and “science of the sand” in Arabic, geomancy has developed a world-wide use of compasses. Not until the 1100s was the compass used by the Song dynasty for geographical navigation to travel over distances. During the 1300s the compass was passed on to Persia and Europe. The same tool that was used to measure the falling patterns of soil, sand, and rocks, has since been used as a component in travelling and mapping out the entire planet. The compass added the certainty of embodied geographical direction as a compound force to human sight.

Every morning the stagemaker bowerbird of the Australian rain forests cuts leaves1. The bird makes them fall to the ground, and turns them over so that the paler insides contrast with the earth below. In this way the bird constructs a stage for itself. Directly above, on a creeper or branch, while fluffing its feathers, it sings a complex song made up from its own notes and, at intervals, imitations of other birds. It is a complete artist.

Text by Aslak Aamot Kjærulff

1 Benjamin Bratton, The Stack