Material Vision – Silent Reading is a series of copper photogravure prints by Espen Sommer Eide, based on the creation of new musical instruments and a performance developed on Bear Island.

19th century Norwegian geologist Balthazar Keilhau describes the island as the “Cadaver of the Earth” due to its lack of vegetation and harsh weather conditions. In exploring an unfamiliar landscape, one cannot avoid a certain process of appropriation, whether one is exploring for the purpose of politics, resources, science or art. The explorer’s gaze cannot help but desire to possess and master the object in view. Through a combination of artistic and scientific performances, Material Vision – Silent Reading investigates various ways of reading a landscape and how the viewer and the viewed relate to each other. In this way of seeing certain prerequisites for perception becomes visible and partakes simultaneously in the experience. The role of the instrument in expeditions is another central theme. To investigate this subject the project uses mobile eye-tracking technologies, combined with instruments that give audible feedback to reading the landscapes. Instruments (scientific or not) allow something to be touched more directly by framing and controlling the view. The use of instruments in this way becomes a learning tool where the object itself teaches us the method of how it should be seen.