Mutable and multi-dimensional montage: Ecologies of perception in Huyghe’s Variants

Abstract

IN PRESS
The entanglement of computational processes with physical place is a defining feature of our contemporary milieu. This paper examines artist Pierre Huyghe's installation Variants (2021) to explore how the qualities of mutability and multi-dimensionality within a networked environ relate to the concept of montage. Variants offers its human interlocutors an expanded perspective that enables the integration of human and computer perception. The paper is advanced in three sections. First, we present an introduction to Huyghe’s artwork Variants, which is an outdoor installation at the Kistefos Museum in Norway. Then, we explore how montage relates to Variants, picking up on a few key points — namely, the relationship between the physical and computational spaces on the island, and how latent spaces can be constructed from recording physical spaces. Finally, we put forward the argument that Variants introduces a unique juxtaposition of human and machine vision, which enables the spectator to engage with computational culture in new ways.