SANDHAUSIAN SPACE
Peter Sandhaus Selected Works 2010-2020
What is SANDHAUSIAN SPACE? And When?
Some years ago Will Erlin in The Public Art Review coined the term SANDHAUSIAN SPACE to describe some of the properties of my public art proposal KLANGKÖRPER (Body of Sound). I initially wasn‘t sure if that wasn‘t a bit preposterous. But the term stuck in my head. And lately I came to think of it as useful, when trying to put a finger on some of the more personal and at the same time rather conceptual questions of space related to my body of work.
My understanding of space as both a physical and a psychological concept tries to simultaneously make sense of a number of attractive theories: From Einstein’s special theory of relativity and his warped space-time to the polynomial math of spline-curves as used when scripting bio-morph geometries in digital space, from the state of flow from Mihály Csíkszentmihályi to the non-dualist and process-oriented concepts of invented and socially constructed reality of 20th century constructivism. In no way shape or form is this amounting to anything resembling a scientifically watertight theory, but it is what I am working with. And these unresolved ambiguities often prove to be productive.
In effect the concept of SANDHAUSIAN SPACE leads to spacial configurations in both my sculptural and painterly work that often share some of the following properties: curvy, organic, warped, spherical, networked, context-driven, participatory, interactive, dynamic, gestural, activating, time-based, process-oriented, algorithmic, parametric, post-digital, bodily, fluid, liquid, dynamic, still moving or seemingly frozen in time just moments ago.
The work spans from small to extra large, from the analogue to the algorithmically scripted, from l’art pour l’art to commissioned, from art to architecture, from 2d to 3d, from 4d to AR and from private to public space.
My works are not supposed to be understood as objects to be looked at but rather are intended to create places for the users to have experiences in. And the users are always heavily involved when it comes to the creation of potential meaning. This is a good thing because it is - after all - not my intent to tell anyone what to think about anything.
To me it feels like space is created in this undissolvable synchronicity of the outside and the inside world. Most western epistemologies postulate on the one hand a so called reality that seems to be objective and to some degree distinct from me as an observer and on the other hand they postulate this individual inner space of consciousness that is supposed to be (mostly) my own responsibility.
For me this seems to be too coarse and way too dualistic and so I tried to put my doubts in this möbius-style loop sentence: THE WORLD IS IN MY HEAD IS IN THE WORLD IS IN MY HEAD IS IN THE WORLD..
It is the purpose of this book to assemble select works from the past decade, that put this way of space-time-thinking into action.