Bernice Nauta has published a book with drawings of an
imaginary atelier she made in the past years. The place looks like a
Nosferatu-Locus Solus-Golem workplace, although also Darth Vader can be found
in a corner. Bernice made the first drawing of her studio on the 3th of
September 2014, and then continued over a year, repeatingly drawing this studio
from her memory. In the end there were 76 drawings. She kept a detailed
administration of the dates she made the drawings (see page 3). 76 almost identical
drawing. The meticulous administrative effort and the repetition (yes, it is
possible to use the corner at the bottom as a flip book-film), make this work
highly pataphysical. Alfred Jarry gives a definition of ’Pataphysics, the
science he invented, and then explains: ‘Contemporary
science is founded upon the principle of induction: most people
have seen a certain phenomenon precede or follow
some other phenomenon most often, and conclude therefrom that it will ever be thus. Apart from other
considerations, this is true only in
the majority of cases, depends upon the point of view, and is codified only for convenience - if that!’ The exception fascinates Jarry much more, but it
would probably be far more scientifically sound to describe each of the
observations individually, instead of defining one general rule and neglecting
the exception. And this is what Bernice did, 76 times.
B.D., Régent de Nautique Épigéenne
www.bernicenauta.nl
