March 5, 2009
Images from the Rijksakademie Open Ateliers 2008

Singular Oscillations: Event Horrizons, 2009 (installation overview)

TUBELIGHT.nl
RijksakademieOPEN 2008: Bradley Pitts
(Verenigde Staten, 1978)
An article about Sigular Oscillations: Event Horizons <in Dutch>
by Saskia van der Kroef 04.12.2008

English Translation:
Bradley Pitts is still around, but in a different way. After a two-year residency at the Rijksakademie he is now a “Resident Researcher in Art/Science”, a position that is probably created especially for him. Pitts' remarkable background (he studied space engineering at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology) makes him incorporate hardcore beta science into his artistic practice in his own particular way. In his work he looks for the subjective meaning of technological progress in the scientific world, especially in the field of space travel. Recently he explored the personal and physical experience of weightlessness. For example at an earlier presentation at the Rijksakademie he has shown an enticing film installation, in which a walk through Amsterdam is being shown in a sequence of flashing images. It is the weightless moments during that walk, measured with technical ingenuity, that determine the presented images. This subject is what Pitts explored this past year on a more serious level, in among the Russian cosmonauts.

The result is an installation that at first sight is elusive, and that, compared to previous work, comes across as sober. But the background is not at all. The four TV screens, a video still, a letter, and two sketches together form the story of the parabolic flight that Pitts took with the space travelers from the Russian training center. Three screens show the view looking out of the plane, while the fourth shows the interior of the plane. The moments when the engine noises of the specially designed flying-laboratory drop out are those of weightlessness, translated into pauses in the fourth film. The video of the interior also fascinates in a different way. Pitts, who has been made invisible for the viewer, turns out to have been experiencing the absolute height of the physical experience of weightlessness by floating naked through the space of the airplane with his senses muted. An astronaut's dream... proven from the letter of the retired space-traveler, who secretly repeated it. We are waiting for Pitts's next contagious investigation that, as he himself hopes, will bring him even closer to space, in both a physical and metaphysical sense.

September 5, 2008

The Long Road to Art

<article in Dutch>

English Translation:
The artist Bradley Pitts has taken what he calls himself, "the long road to art." PRC is supporting this trip of the talented American, who is enjoying a residency at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (RABK).

With the financial contribution of PRC, that has been supporting various artists since 1998, Bradley is able to concentrate fully on research and art projects. He started his career as an aerospace engineer at MIT. Gradually he realized that the scientific, material, surroundings weren't enough for him. He also wanted to focus on the inside: the thoughts behind the physical world. "In a nutshell you can say that it's about the rational versus the subjective dialogue for me. I not only focus on the 'evidence' as I did at MIT, but also on the subjective being, the soul."

At a recent presentation that he gave at PRC in Bodegraven, Bradley is showing documents from his process. A striking example is a video where he is walking through Amsterdam, showing the moments that he is weightless. On YouTube one can find his videos.

Currently he is working on his ultimate dream: going into space. Physically of course, but also conceptually, because first and foremost he maintains to be an artist.

August 12, 2008


Your Own Inavertable Eye
by Claude Biemans

<article in dutch>

English Translation:
Physicist, Raymond van Ee, and artist, Bradley Pitts, are building a device together; a special mirror with which you will see your own eye continuously directed at yourself. This is going to be a unique experience, and the self-inspecting eye is making possible a whole new research into the effects of volition.

You are looking up. A big eye above you is staring at you. It is making you uneasy, and so you turn your gaze down. The eye moves with you and keeps staring at you. It blinks when you blink. You start looking more closely now, straight ahead. You can see the retina of the eye that keeps its gaze unavertably directed at you.

This will be more or less the effect of the Ellipsoidal Introspective Optic (EIO), designed by artist Bradley Pitts (US, 1978) in collaboration with Raymond van Ee, member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences' (KNAW) Young Academy (DJA) and university head-professor in the Physics of Man department at the University of Utrecht. In the context of the 200th anniversary of the KNAW they are developing this mirror that reflects the image of the one eye into the other, no matter where you look. The shape of the mirror is an ellipse whose two foci coincide with the centre of eye rotation for each eye. The depth of the concave mirror will be determined by the minimum focussing distance of the eye.

Pitts, who previously studied aerospace engineering at MIT, is currently an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. He had MRI-scans made of his head in order to determine as accurately as possible the centres of eye rotation of each of his eyes. These centres are not completely fixed, but will help in the construction of an aluminium prototype of the mirror that will fit like a mask on his face. Two LED-lights at the level of the ears will provide the light.

Currently TNO is working to make a very accurate polished mould which is needed for the production of the hollow mirror. This can only be done by means of a galvanic process, electroforming, which deposits nickel electrolytically onto the mold. After a stable layer of nickel is deposited, the artist will let the backside of the mirror continue to grow by a chaotic galvanisation proces. This will result in a coral-like structure. The extreme preciseness of the mirror surface will stand in contrast to the organic forms on the backside of the mirror.

It is to be expected that the EIO will be presented in the fall.

Raymond van Ee says, "The phenomenology of perception with the mirror is unique in history. Never before has someone looked at his own unavertable eye. With help of the mirror I want to research how the perceived image is to be influenced consciously. It is unknown if the selfreflecting eye will look like a 3 dimensional object and if volition will have any influence on the perceived direction, distance, or maybe even on how penetrating the gaze is."

July 24, 2008

Coverage of the first steps in my collaboration with the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) here

March 5, 2008
Images from the Rijksakademie Open Ateliers 2007

My studio showing THE DARKNESS IN-BETWEEN

Project Room South with 'The Ten-Pound Seed' and photos by Gwenneth Boelens

The blind spot drawing tool and 'Blind Spot: Constructed Void'

December 30, 2007

Annet Gelink and I have decided to work together. Please contact the gallery for all sales information.

December 1, 2007

My studio in Amsterdam will be open to the public on the weekend of December 1st as part of the Rijksakademie Open Studios. Please come visit.

November 8, 2007

I will be speaking about my work and process at Wittenplaats in Amsterdam on November 8th. Please come and add to the discussion.

June 30, 2007


Introductory text at the entrance to the bakery.

"One Roll of Weightlessness: 50 ft. of Weightlessness" and "One Roll of Weightlessness: The Ascension of the Everyday"

"One Roll of Weightlessness: Akinetopsia" and "The Ten-Pound Seed"

"Blind Spots #2: Internal Peripheries"

April 8, 2007

February 11, 2007

In order to broaden my audience and enter the video dialog happening on the Internet, I have uploaded material to YouTube. I am excited about the possibilities that open up when work is shared openly and am therefore pursuing opportunities to do so. To see my videos on YouTube click here.

December 5, 2006
I have achieved cover-boy status!

 
<cover>                                                      <article in dutch>

English translation of my paragraph:

The Rijksakademie is a place where interdisciplinary research that goes beyond the limits of one specific medium can be pursued without restriction. …

For the moment the New Yorker Bradley Pitts (1978) tops everything in the field. In this year's Open Studios, Pitts (who also has two degrees in 'aerospace engineering') presents a work that concerns his research into weightlessness in everyday life. These are projects that not only have a great technical complexity but also possess a practical, humane character: scientific and absurd at the same time; Yves Klein with befitting mathematics.

Apart from this Pitts is also investigating the implosion of perception, literally the 'black holes' in our gaze. He is working on two and three dimensional constructions of the blind spots in his visual field, caused by the exact spot where the optic nerve connects to the eyeball. He also concerns himself with technical projects that are hard to put into practice, like the creation of a self-reflecting elliptic "eye catcher" in which each eye can only see the other.

December 1, 2006
Images from the Rijksakademie Open Ateliers 2006
My main studio space screening "Akinetopsia" and "In Absence of Zero"

My office presenting "Blind Spots #3: Painting Peripheries"

Project room collaboration with Steve van Den Bosch presenting "Hand Meditation"

November 25, 2006

My studio in Amsterdam will be open to the public on the weekend of November 25 as part of the Rijksakademie Open Studios. Please come visit.

October 27, 2006
Images from the mushroomarts opening

September 13, 2006

I will exhibit as part of the group show "The Ascension of the Everyday" at Mushroom Arts in New York City, opening Thursday, October 19th (time TBD).

August 20, 2006
Opening in Xiamen
I will be part of a group show opening at PARTS gallery in Xiamen, China. The opening will be on September 2nd at 5PM. Address: 6F No. 400 Siming Nanlu, Xiamen, China.

June 21, 2006
igargoyle.com
An online article about my work: http://igargoyle.com/archives/2006/06/spacesuit_art.html

May 27, 2006
New content added
I have added a new section to the site called Writings. Currently this houses my masters thesis as well as the two presentations I made at ISDC06 in LA.

In addition I have added a new, untitled project to the site. For ease of reference I call it "Speed of Lights." Please see the Projects page in order to see a still from the project.

May 1, 2006
Machine Project
While in LA I will be presenting my work at The Machine Project on North Alvarado Street. The presentation is scheduled to coincide with Dorkbot on Saterday May 6th.

March 20, 2006

I have been invited to present at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles on May 5th, 2006. My presentations will include "Artistic Exploration as Market Fuel," presented in the space tourism track, and "Against Space Utilization (Cultural or Otherwise)," presented in the art track. Please see the ISDC website for scheduling.