AGENCY FOR UNSEEN SIGHTS
Esmée Willemsen
Esmée Willemsen
2022
Supervisors_ Prof. Ineke Hans, Prof. Holger Neumann, Annika Unger
BA Graduation Project_ Esmée Willemsen
BA Graduation Project_ Esmée Willemsen
Trips, travel, holiday and vacation are something we like to
daydream about. Beautiful landscapes, exciting cities, fascinating
historical monuments. In my opinion, our wish to go away has more to do
with ourselves than the destination of our dreams. The
happiness connected to a trip has less to do with the place where we
are going, but more with fulfilling our needs and desires. Through
travelling we train our imagination and the way we see things in
general, which is undoubtedly one of the most fortune things about
travel. We use vacations as an escape from reality. It offers us
distance from home, our everyday lives, our routines and stressful jobs
and instead make us feel free and adventurous. We want to experience
something else; a different world and we see it as healthy and normal to
feel a longing for distant places.
This project is about dreaming of distant places, having a deep urge to see the world and all its spectacles. experiencing the far away and exotic with own eyes instead of hearing stories, reading or watching movies about far away places. My motivation comes from a constant reminder that there are so many places to go, strengthened by the existence of social media platforms like Instagram, where everyone seems to be everywhere all the time.
What is the next hot spot I should go to? How come I never went to this museum before? Which cafe of the 10 nicest cafes in this city can’t I miss? Shit, did I forget to share the amazing view I had on this mountaintop this morning?
Agency of Unseen Sights was born and it’s purpose is to research how places are being treated when they are marked with objects that indicate that there is something to be seen. I was driven to understand and see if the politics of objects can communicate how they should be used and what outcome the usage of these objects will have. Will the viewer/user have a deeper understanding of the act of seeing and sightseeing? Will the newly contextualized place where my objects are put in be read/seen as a sight? With Agency of Unseen Sights I do not necessarily aim to communicate positive or negative sides about sightseeing, but the purpose is for people to question the act of seeing, to have a second thought about how our eyes and views are guided and marked with objects, how our sights are being marketed. What do they want us to see? Maybe to even think about if your own set of eyes are trained to be looking for spectacles, or if everything can turn into a spectacle once you realize you can be the one to decide what to look at. Or not.
Agency for Unseen Sights is a newly founded fictional agency that provides infrastructure to turn any place into a place of interest. With objects from the agency’s catalogue, places that at first-hand don’t seem special can be transformed into must-sees.
The Agency for Unseen Sights offers the possibility to make invisible ‘sights’ visible and critically questions the way we travel far for new perspectives and experiences and the reasons we are going to specific places to gaze. Can scenic views be enjoyed anywhere? Is it the place that needs to be interesting enough to draw attention or is it the circumstances? Can interesting sights be created with the help of infrastructure, artefacts, signs or markers that reminds us that we have to have a look, that there must be something going one which should be observed?
This project is about dreaming of distant places, having a deep urge to see the world and all its spectacles. experiencing the far away and exotic with own eyes instead of hearing stories, reading or watching movies about far away places. My motivation comes from a constant reminder that there are so many places to go, strengthened by the existence of social media platforms like Instagram, where everyone seems to be everywhere all the time.
What is the next hot spot I should go to? How come I never went to this museum before? Which cafe of the 10 nicest cafes in this city can’t I miss? Shit, did I forget to share the amazing view I had on this mountaintop this morning?
Agency of Unseen Sights was born and it’s purpose is to research how places are being treated when they are marked with objects that indicate that there is something to be seen. I was driven to understand and see if the politics of objects can communicate how they should be used and what outcome the usage of these objects will have. Will the viewer/user have a deeper understanding of the act of seeing and sightseeing? Will the newly contextualized place where my objects are put in be read/seen as a sight? With Agency of Unseen Sights I do not necessarily aim to communicate positive or negative sides about sightseeing, but the purpose is for people to question the act of seeing, to have a second thought about how our eyes and views are guided and marked with objects, how our sights are being marketed. What do they want us to see? Maybe to even think about if your own set of eyes are trained to be looking for spectacles, or if everything can turn into a spectacle once you realize you can be the one to decide what to look at. Or not.
Agency for Unseen Sights is a newly founded fictional agency that provides infrastructure to turn any place into a place of interest. With objects from the agency’s catalogue, places that at first-hand don’t seem special can be transformed into must-sees.
The Agency for Unseen Sights offers the possibility to make invisible ‘sights’ visible and critically questions the way we travel far for new perspectives and experiences and the reasons we are going to specific places to gaze. Can scenic views be enjoyed anywhere? Is it the place that needs to be interesting enough to draw attention or is it the circumstances? Can interesting sights be created with the help of infrastructure, artefacts, signs or markers that reminds us that we have to have a look, that there must be something going one which should be observed?
Text by Esmée Willemsen
