After “This is air” and “This is affection,” “This is reflection” is the third work by Nadja Adelmann that deals with David Foster Wallace’s concept of “default settings”: the seemingly prosaic day-to-day concerns that shape our perception, without us ever being conscious of them.1 In “This is reflection,” one of these “default settings” is made visible. The installation makes light waves tangible in a sensual
way. In fact the waves themselves are invisible and can only be perceived when they reflect from an object and are processed, but above all interpreted, by our brain. Only upon this last step, the interpretation, are we able to experience the world visually. However, everything that happens up to that point is indeed reality, even if we do not perceive it. Beyond that, our perception is also influenced by perspective, movement, and reflection. The term “reflection” also has a sociological level to it: reflection on oneself and reflection on others. Like the fish in Foster’s parable who are not aware of the water surrounding them, our perception is also shaped by certain things that are apparently taken for granted. The horse-blinders can only be removed if your views are unprejudiced and your curiosity for the world is unhindered. Already the
ancient Greeks realized that knowledge begins in wonder, and that we run the risk of losing our knowledge if we stop wondering.2 The art critic Hanno Rauterberg said, perception has little to do with rational cognition, but rather with “soft, blurry feeling.”3 That is precisely what “This is reflection” addresses. The light refl ections and rhythmic movements enable a sensorial understanding of an element that is difficult to grasp and address questions regarding theories of perception.
1 David Foster Wallace. This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Signifi cant Occasion, About Living a Compassionate Life,
Boston, Massachusetts, 2009. The essay is based on a speech that Wallace held in 2005 for students of Kenyon College.
2 Ernst H. Gombrich. Kunst und Illusion. Zur Psychologie der bildlichen Darstellung. 2nd edition. Stuttgart/Zürich 1986, p. 24.
3 Hanno Rauterberg. Und das ist Kunst?! Eine Qualitätsprüfung. Frankfurt 2008 (2007), p. 117.
