Torsten Lauschmann’s intriguingly multiform but deftly sculptural moving-image installations frequently highlight points of connection between digital technology and pre-cinematic optical entertainments.  One of the stand-out works in a recent solo exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts, ‘Father’s Monocle’ typifies his disarmingly oblique but beguilingly incisive approach. A shape-shifting shimmer formed out of multiple pinpricks of light is video-projected onto the darkened backdrop of the gallery wall. Teeming like midges but glowing like fireflies, these indistinct light sources hover at the edge of focus, like a miniature MilkyWay. As they cluster and dissolve in ever-changing patterns, the simple action of a free-hanging monocle, twisting and twirling like a mobile in front of the beam of the projector, brings a small part of the image into sharper (albeit temporary) perspective. As if under the restless lens of a telescope, or the magical optic of a magnifying glass, each tiny glimmer reveals itself as one of a series of a numbers, floating in the void of space. Conjured up by running a specially written ‘flocking algorithm’ on an everyday gaming computer, the piece subtly illuminates the so-called ‘emergent’ properties of complex mathematical systems. At the heart of this gentle snowstorm of chaos, Lauschmann’s spyglass evokes a feeling of stillness – the underlying quiet at the eye of the swarm. Named, with nostalgic affection, after an antiquated eyepiece from a previous era, the piece also paints a humorous picture of God the creator looking out over the universe yet seemingly unable to give his attention to more than a few of his subjects at any given time.

His new solo exhibition for AV Festival, which includes ‘Father’s Monocle’, responds to the context of the Laing, continuing his interest in the history of image technology from paintings to game engines.

Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Dundee Contemporary Arts and AV Festival