For centuries, human perception and the exploration of the unknown have been subjects of artistic inquiry. In her project “Retreat into Darkness. Towards a Phenomenology of the Unknown,” the artist Ivana Franke brings both together and explores our processes of perception when we are faced with something that is phenomenologically unknown. Published by Spector Books, the book presents the elements of “retreat into darkness”: Ivana Franke’s installation at the Schering Stiftung, whose light reflections in an absolutely dark room facilitate new visual experiences; experiments by cognitive psychologist Bilge Sayim; and observations by internationally renowned researchers Jimena Canales, Pierre Gallais, Sylvia C. Pont, and Anil K. Seth.

Ivana Franke is a visual artist based in Berlin. Her investigations with light approach the interface between perception, cognition and environment, focusing on perceptual thresholds. In 2017, her solo exhibition Perceptual Drift (Galaxies in Mind) was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. Further projects included Disorientation Station (11th Shanghai Biennale) and Seeing with Eyes Closed (Peggy Guggenheim, Venice, 2011; Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, 2012). She represented Croatia at the 52nd Venice Biennale with a solo show titled Latency; her work has also been shown at Manifesta 7 and MoMA P.S.1.

Juan-Andres Leon trained as a physicist and a historian before doing a PhD in the History of Science. Parallel to his academic trajectory, he has pursued a museum career that focuses on modern scientific instrumentation and computing. His work looks at the role of science as world transforming practice, political ideology and personal habitus. In his dissertation, “Citizens of the Chemical Complex,” he explored the world of science philanthropy in Imperial and Weimar Germany and its impact on the applied sciences, physics, mathematics and astronomy. He is now completing a monograph on the history of astronomy, astrophysics and space research in the second half of the 20th century in West Germany.

Elena Agudio is a Berlin-based art historian and curator. Her research is focused on the sharing and exchange of knowledge and skills across disciplines and cultures beyond the Western episteme. She is the artistic director of the non-profit Association of Neuroesthetics (AoN). Since 2013, she is artistic co-director at SAVVY Contemporary. Her latest and still running curatorial projects include We Who Are Not The Same. Exercises Towards The Unmaking Of Patriarchy, Control, Dominion And Other Male Cogito’s Misplaced Potencies, a series curated with Nathalie Mba Bikoro and Federica Bueti; SAVVY Funk, an iteration of Every Time A Ear di Soun — a documenta 14 Radio Program, curated together with Bonaventure Ndikung and Marcus Gammel; and That, Around Which The Universe Revolves, curated with Bonaventure Ndikung, Anna Jäger and Saskia Köbschall. Elena and Ivana have been engaged in dialogue for the past eight years.