The Engineer | The Chemist

How Clouds are Formed: The Engineer, 2018

How Clouds are Formed: The Chemist, 2018

Through the hands of the Engineer and the eyes of the Chemist, the function and usefulness of both the projector and microscope are tested in two video experiments. The Engineer identifies the problem with a faulty projector to be a weak lens. He tests the strength of the beam as he explains the process in three different languages; English, French & Kiswahili.

In a paired video, The Chemist looks through a microscope into a universe of cell division and proceeds to test a sample. A moment of alchemy occurs when both witness the forming of a cloud through a haze of movement and blurriness in these acts of testing and looking. This offering of a world is similar to what cinema does. It situates the projection & magnification of the image as a telescopic leap, giving us a macro view of ourselves as a species while allowing us to see how one is alienated by what they encounter.

These sets of videos engage different machines and the different forms languages of instruction can take. They also revisit the Senegalese physicist; Cheikh Anta Diop’s call for an organization of scientists of the black world. Souleymane Bachir Diagne while applauding the many advances enabled by Cheikh Anta Diop however counsels, “…a laboratory should not be the territory of a king. By definition, a laboratory is a network that is endlessly open, like science itself; and like science itself, it is meant to survive the exit of any scientist.”