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.
