Hosted by: Petras Saulėnas

This workshop will focus on an experimental approach to the analysis of light; the main goal is to revive the essence of image-making, which may even get rid of the use of any apparatus in order to shape light.

During the workshop, participants will be encouraged to play with different means to shape light. Light is a primary source of all images, and the physics behind this phenomenon is part of the lesson plan. During the workshop, we will be traveling to a time where chemicals still haven’t been replaced by algorithms.

Now we live in an era where everyone is able to take snaps with their phone, and this abundance is not necessarily making any visual sense, despite the fact that those images are “perfectly” clear, technologically and in other ways precise. The blurriness and grainy properties of human-made images resemble our vision and memory more precisely than the glossy superfluous image from a computer screen.

One of the main problems that is raising with the development of technology, science and artificial intelligence is a question of freedom (for example in movies such as Brazil, the Matrix, etc.). At the same time our surroundings, our way of seeing of the world has become influenced more and more by algorithmic (logical, computing) thinking, which shapes our abilities to be creative. So this workshop is focused exactly on the freedom to experiment and human imagination.

Nonetheless, there is no need to escape progress, but with a better understanding of the essence of an image, we can become more equipped and prepared for this chaos of image overabundance and shape our own light.

Petras Saulėnas is an artist, specializing in the field of photography, a member of the Board of the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association and the Lithuanian Analog Photography Association, a graduate of MA degree in Media Art (Vilnius Academy of Arts). Saulėnas is the founder of one of the photography study programs in Lithuania, an associate professor, the founder and the curator of Bright & Showy gallery. Guest professor at Liepaja University. His field of artistic research involves the analysis of photography phenomenon in the era of constant value shift, with an emphasis on the re-evaluation of contemporary art context.