Ögontröst by Rut Karin Zettergren

Ögontröst is one of the artistic components of my PhD research in Fine Art, where I explore whether infrared (IR) camera technology can foster a “cyborg perception” — a technologically enhanced vision that, by extending visual perception, may also expand what futures we are able to imagine. IR technology, which visualises electromagnetic radiation, wavelengths invisible to the human eye, has been refined for military applications, primarily for its capacity to detect body heat. In Ögontröst, I repurpose the IR vision through speculative fiction and feminist techno-critical approaches, exploring how it might be redirected toward sensibilities of care. The work is based on footage gathered at decommissioned military sites in the Nordic region, filmed at a macro scale with a focus on plants slowly reclaiming these spaces. The imagery shifts between two types of cameras: a thermal camera revealing the filmmaker’s body heat and the lingering traces of touch left on plants and concrete structures, and analogue near-infrared footage visualizing the chlorophyll in the plants. The analogue film is developed through organic processes using plants collected from the filming sites. The piece follows a protagonist searching for the medicinal plant ögontröst (eyebright), historically used to treat eye infections, as a remedy for eyes wounded by witnessing violence and ecological collapse in a hypermediated world.

Silmäruoho – Suomenlinna / Ögontröst – Sveaborg / Eyebright – Suomenlinna

Medium: Infrared video, 04:39 min loop

Silmäruoho – Suomenlinna is the first in a series of short studies filmed at decommissioned military sites across the Nordic region, where the filmmaker searches for the medicinal plant Silmäruoho / Ögontröst / Eyebright (Euphrasia). This chapter, filmed on Suomenlinna, focuses on a human eye and close-ups of plant life slowly reclaiming military structures. The plant’s Swedish name Ögontröst (“eye comfort”) refers to its traditional use in treating eye conditions. In the work, the name also functions as a kind of “spell” for relief from the violent legacy of technology and from eyes overheated by the consumption of mediated violence.

The Ögontröst series is part of Zettergren’s PhD in Fine Art, which explores a speculative techno-feminist repurposing of infrared imaging—originally developed for military use. The research investigates methods through which infrared imaging could enable a “cyborg perception”: a technologically extended way of seeing that may also expand the futures we are able to imagine.

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