My research aims to shed light on how, from a poetic perspective, the headgear of an expert can significantly influence how a search, a project, or an expedition unfolds and is perceived.
By applying the technique of collage—and the image-text arrangements that emerge from it, which can, for instance, take the form of a book—I place headgear within personal contexts. Taking into account the expertise of those who wear them, I examine these head coverings while simultaneously seeking to sharpen my awareness of everything that occurs in the process of artistic research. The focus is less on a scientific approach and more on chosen moments that poetically shape or set in motion the act of research itself. I refer to occurrences within a working process that may not justify themselves as valid methods of inquiry within their field, yet greatly enrich or even advance it.
How can a (scientific) expedition be examined not in terms of its results, but in terms of its searching processuality? And how, through the use of artistic methods and by way of the extended function of headgear, might one approach a mysterious driving force—the joy of searching, groping, experimenting; the stubborn meandering into ever-new dead ends; and the rare moments when new insights flash forth? How might one draw nearer to the loneliness or the restlessness that can arise during the working process? Where do we find the beauty that we cannot explain, yet which holds so much power?