Previous installations of blindspot have explored, through various means, the intrinsic value and the social representations of scientific language. Hierarchical systems of communication and objects of representation in science have been approached as far as they pertain to perception.

By exploring and crossing traditional boundaries between science and art, it is possible to denunciate the structure of scientific proceedings. Moreover, it is possible to isolate and highlight the symbolic nature of science and its means of social representation, emphasizing its strong dependence on perception.

According to Bruno Latour, the permeability between the site of experiments and its surroundings creates the possibility of producing symmetric analysis. The setting04_0006, as well as the blindspot Project as a whole, explores the non-linear interface between humans and non-humans in the ecotone created by the transitional boundary between laboratory space and the space outside-of-the-laboratory.
Gestures are part of laboratory life, as are objects and scientists. In previous projects blindspot examined the perception of spaces when humans were removed and objects assumed centre-stage. The object created an unambiguous and sharp language conveying new meaning and an alien identity to the laboratory space.

In setting04_0006 both the human entities and the objects were eliminated. Only gestures remained, creating a continuous and complex sequence of movement. The repetition of a complex sequence of movement creates a primordial pantomime. However, at closer look, there is an intrinsic complexity in the movement. Due to the absence of external references and structural principles one observes in gestures accompanying language, the whole sequence is rapidly lost acquiring a rather crude and unsettling character of expression. They are little more than stochastic short sequences of movement. Ultimately meaningless. Yet, minimal contextual elements are still present: gloves, a white coat. Traces and clues that remind the viewer that this is part of a bigger picture, that was deliberately left out of each frame.

The creation of sign language appears to be a primordial instinct in humans and other primates and begins with the development of protosigns, a combinatorially open repertoire of manual gestures.
Human beings have an innate ability to create new languages and give language its fundamental structure (Senghas 2004, Science 305). Conversely, the need to ascribe meaning to a gesture appears to be an equally “natural” necessity. As the viewer attempts to follow the movement of the hands, it is perceived as an incongruent narrative, leading to a dead end or a circular labyrinth. Like paradise-paradox, setting04_0006 represents an empty landscape devoid of references. The customary references that confer meaning to representation are absent and the gestures are scaffolding surrounding an empty space. There is no support and there is nothing to be supported.

A second and third layer of information is added through superimposed supplementary footage. An attempt to reproduce the same gestures, the same movement of precision. An attempt to manipulate objects that are no longer there.

As seen from the inside-of-the-laboratory perspective, the scientist has lost her tools. The objects are no longer present, but a trained memory is still able to reconstitute a series of movements. Because of its highly functional nature – this is not a symbolic language – the movements lacks objects, or rather, the objects act as extensions of the scientist’s hands.