I [for] EYE
INSTALLATION BY STEFAAN DECOSTERE
I FOR EYE echoes the impressive architectural ‘telescope’ on top of the TUD central library building, with a view not larger than the human eye. The giant cosmic and sky view is rescaled here to that of the human individual sensitive body. The expectation, however, is as ambitious as its model.
I FOR EYE is an homage to Brunelleschi’s ‘tavoletta’ and his double mirror-based set-up from the 1420’s (with which he put his eye on perspective drawing). It reminds us of the love story encoded in Marcel Duchamp’s installation ‘Etant Donné’. It can be understood as a 3D-storyboard view waiting to be set in motion in a moving picture. In that sense, I for Eye announces the fantastic story of Alice, who, in this very library, falls in love with a boy, precisely at the moment when she is cured from a long term eye sickness. The emotion enflames in her eye, as an image that reflects throughout her whole body. Here, she is just about to leave the space, ready to take a ride, away from an optics of lust to the magic of love. (script for single screen, in-progress by Stefaan Decostere).
I FOR EYE displays a situation of mirrors and reflections, hidden behind small peeping holes. The mirroring mirrors inside activate the original power of media, capable of transforming reality into something else.
I FOR EYE was produced by TU Architecture MediaStudies:
material research – Floris Albering
construction – Jarchall Schepers
photography – Hans Schouten
coordination – Angelique Loeve
initiative – Margit Tamás
*Stefaan Decostere proposed this occasional set-up out of his ongoing guest colleges at TUD/BK, titled SPACES OUT OF MEDIA, together with students architecture and industrial design. They sometimes contribute to Decostere’s installation projects. Such has been the case recently for WARUM 2.0, an installation-arena presented by v2 during the International Rotterdam Film Festival in 2009.















But now what? They can almost see the plant inside, but will they engage? Do they dare even touch the ‘box’?
What is needed is a final factor, something that makes them part the viel and complete the ’script’.
Perhaps the object spins slowly, unnoticeable at a distance, but apparent up close; after all the beauty of nature is its 3-dimensionality.
Even more effective might be a slight noise from within the ‘box’. Originally I thought of a cricket, but some people are revolted by insects, so the cheeping of a baby bird would be more enticing. This idea was inspired in part my Magrite’s peanut box, but the effect of opening will be the opposite.







