RIT’s SPAS Gallery Opens Season with ‘Witness’ on Sept. 12

In the 1980s, the U.S. government carried out experiments in “Remote Viewing,” the tactical use of extrasensory perception to gather intelligence information. Known by the code name “Stargate Project,” this telepathic military endeavor became the basis for a long-distance collaborative project by photo-based artists Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman.

Probing their own telepathist abilities, Larson and Shindelman conducted experiments of psychic perception and surveillance by attempting to remotely “observe” each other’s actions.

The exhibition Witness—on view from Sept. 12-28 at the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences Gallery at Rochester Institute of Technology—comprises the images, drawings, and writing documenting the course of the artists’ collaborative experiments. An artist reception is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 12.

With wit and irony, Larson and Shindelman playfully explore the concept of the “power of the mind” and extrasensory experiences, both real and imagined.

Larson is a Chicago-based artist and photographer. He is professor of photography at Elgin Community College in Illinois and is currently in residence at RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences as a visiting professor.

Shindelman is assistant professor of art and an associate of the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Rochester. She recently co-organized the 2007 exhibition absence/excess/loss, at Rochester Contemporary Gallery, a contemporary art installation involving repetition, vernacular objects and mourning.

SPAS Gallery, located on the third floor of the Frank E. Gannett Building, is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call Therese Mulligan at (585) 475-2884.

The School of Photographic Arts and Sciences Gallery at Rochester Institute of Technology is the primary venue for photography in western New York State. It offers an academic calendar of exhibitions by visiting artists, faculty and advanced students, artists’ talks, master classes and portfolio reviews. For information, call Gallery Director Therese Mulligan at (585) 475-2884.