Author: Ollie Palmer

Practice

I realised recently that I do a lot of work that I don’t really share anywhere. I write lots of notes, I think in diagrams, and I have an archive of notebooks, photos, screenshots, and so on, that capture some parts of my creative process.

I made this website – olliepalmer.com – years ago, and it’s mostly for showcasing completed work. It’s kind of clunky to update, and the ways that people make websites now has changed.

I made a new site at practice.olliepalmer.com where I’ll be posting things-in-progress a bit more regularly. It also cross-posts to Instagram, if that’s more your thing. Enjoy.

A Tree

Trees of Rotterdam will be in the group show A Tree at Onomatopee in Eindhoven from 13 July to 22 September this year. If you like trees, this is the show for you!

More information at the Onomatopee website.

Note: for some reason, only Alice is credited on most of the show promotional materials. So it goes.

Modes of Production

The film Alice Ladenburg and I made – Trees of Rotterdam – will be shown as part of performance presentation at the Modes of Production conference in Coimbra, Portugal, on Friday 28 June. More information about the conference here, and the film here.

Time Frames exhibition at Natlab

Exciting news – I have a solo show opening soon at Natlab in Eindhoven. It’s called Time Frames, and is based on my 2023 live video essay of the same name. It’s about time.

The show features two video works in some specially-made cinematic rooms:

Time Frames (2024)

Yes, this video lends its name to the exhibition – and it’s a newly updated version of the film, in a specially-created cinema room. It’s a film essay made using my Reflexive Scripted Design process, about the way that the times we live in shape what we perceive as possible. It’s thirty-something minutes long and features footage I’ve shot from around the world.

86400 (2016)

A special version of 86400 – a 24-hour film that features a new Google Images search for every second of the day – constructed inside a modified viewer. This work hasn’t been shown since 2017 – previously it was projected on a huge screen at the Palais de Tokyo, and in the hallway of the School of The Art Institute in Chicago. (Do you want to know more about this project? There is a write-up in my PhD here.)

All the details

Time Frames

A solo show by Ollie Palmer.
Natlab, Kastanjelaan 500, 5616 LZ Eindhoven
Exhibition open 23 June until 3 October 2024.

Produced by Baltan Labs, supported by CBK R’DAM.

On the 22 June at 17h there will be an opening party, featuring a live performance. Bring your best timepiece.

Thank you to Baltan Labs – Marlou, Sarie, Ishani, and Lorenzo – for making this happen!

More information at Baltan Laboratories’ website

Trees of Rotterdam at Boijmans Museum

When I first moved to Rotterdam 7 years ago, I was excited to have the Boijmans Museum so close. So many paintings I’d seen in books – so many Jheronymous Bosches! iki/The_Tower_of_Babel_(Bruegel)” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>The Tower of Babel! – there in real life, in front of my eyes. Then, in 2019 it closed for major renovation…initially, for 7 years, but now it looks like it will be 10.

So imagine my delight when I was asked recently if we could screen Trees of Rotterdam at Boijmans as part of the Rotterdam Architecture Month!

If you’d like to see the film in a pretty rare setting, please come on down on the 8 June at 20h. More information and tickets available at the Rotterdam Architecture Month website. I think there will be a Q&A too.

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IFFR 2024

I am terrible at keeping news up to date. This is a retrospective post…

Trees of Rotterdam, the short film I made with Alice Ladenburg, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in January. It was paired with Carel van Hees’ beautiful documentary Berichten uit de Hunkerbunker, a moving portrait of a city through the eyes of an elderly woman living in the RVS apartments on the Beukelsdijk in Rotterdam. I absolutely loved Carel’s film, and it was a pleasure sharing the stage for the many Q&A sessions.

Overall, there were six sold-out screenings of the programme. The film will also be shown at a few more venues later in the year, to be confirmed.

Here are some photos. As ever, I’m not great at documenting things as they happen.

Artists Alice Ladenurg and Ollie Palmer pointing in disbelief at their own poster at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2024

Art x IFFR

The cast and crew of Trees of Rotterdam: Jens van der Zee, Alice Ladenburg, Ollie Palmer, Kees Moeliker, Adriaan Wormgoor

First scene of Trees of Rotterdam as seen in Cinerama cinema

The audience at Lantarenvenster

Alice Ladenburg anwering a question at a cinema Q&A session

Carel van Hees anwering a question at a cinema Q&A session

Still from Trees of Rotterdam on the screen in Lantarenvenster cinema, Rottedam

Trees of Rotterdam

Trees of Rotterdam

About

A breathtaking journey through the skies, streets and trees of Rotterdam, telling the story of past, present, and possible futures of trees in the city.

Filmed in a single shot, captured using high-tech point cloud scanners, the film takes the audience through the cityscape from a series of unique viewpoints. The camera moves over, under, and through the urban environment, whilst narration from experts (an architectural historian, a tree advocate, a naturalist and the city council tree expert) offers insights into how the urban and natural can co-exist.

In these times of environmental catastrophe, what can we learn from nature that already surrounds us? This film asks the audience to question their own relationship with trees: When’s the last time you really looked at a tree?

A collaboration with artist Alice Ladenburg. Full project information and press pack available at treesofrotterdam.com

Short film, 12 minutes; 4k UHD Apple ProRes file.

Credits

A film by Alice Ladenburg and Ollie Palmer

Written, produced and directed by

  • Alice Ladenburg
  • Ollie Palmer

Cinematography, editing, scan post-processing

  • Ollie Palmer

Original concept

Scanning and scan processing

  • Jens van der Zee
    Laboratory for Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University
  • Scans originally for Fourteen Trees of Rotterdam (2021) by Alice Ladenburg

Voices

  • Herman van Bergeijk
  • Charlotte van der Heiden
  • Ronald Loch
  • Kees Moeliker
  • Adriaan Wormgoor
  • Phoebe Ladenburg

Voiceover recording

  • Ollie Palmer
  • Phoebe Ladenburg

Location audio recording

  • Alice Ladenburg

Supported by

  • CBK R’DAM
  • Wageningen University

Time Frames

Time Frames

Note: This project is being exhibited at Natlab in Eindhoven as part of my solo show (also entitled Time Frames), from 22 June – 3 October 2024! More information here.

A performative essay-film about the ways in which time frames our experience, perception, and the bounds of what is, and what isn’t possible. Made using a rules-based constrained creative process, the film ties together three perspectives – that of a fictionalised Italo Calvino, a petulant contemporary artist, and the archetypical joker (as described by Alan Watts), to create a new collage which reflects on our present relationship to time.

This is the second film (after Network/Intersect) to be created using the Reflexive Scripted Design process I developed during my residency at Palais de Tokyo, and described in detail in my PhD. In this process, two textual elements, and one contextual elements, are combined via a series of absurd rules, which are followed at every stage of production to create a piece of work. In this case, the works are:

  • Context: Artist in Rotterdam, 2023 (my own life!)
  • Text: Cybernetics and Ghosts, Italo Calvino
  • Text: The Joker (lectures), Alan Watts

Which led to the rules:

  • RULE 1: Everything is a game
  • RULE 2: The aim of the game is to reveal that everything is game whilst also keeping the game running
  • RULE 3: The voices of the corresponding elements of this work must be presented independently
  • RULE 4: Granular and continuous must be presented at all times
  • RULE 5: Everything is black and white

The result is a 25-30 minute long performance-film with live dialogue.
Bear with me, this is my first time…

Exhibition

Time Frames: a solo exhibition by Ollie Palmer
Natlab, Eindhoven
22 June – 3 October 2024
More information
Supported by Baltan Laboratories and CBK R’DAM

The Multiple Arts of Schematism in the Depths of the Soul
V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media
Rotterdam, NL
27 May 2023
Delivered as a film with live performance elements.

Credits

Film, writing, editing

Voice

  • Ollie Palmer
  • Amy Thomas

Commissioned by

  • Film originally commissioned for the event: The Multiple Arts of Schematism in the Depths of the Soul
  • Sonia de Jager + Joost De Raeymaecker, Erasmus School of Philosophy
  • Alex Falk, V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media
  • Time Frames exhibition at Natlab commissioned by Marlou van der Cruijsen and Lorenzo Gerbi, Baltan Laboratories

Supported by

  • V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media
  • Baltan Laboratories
  • CBK R’DAM

Baltan Labs podcast

Over the past few months, I’ve been participating in Baltan LabsRaise Your Voice programme, a “learning trajectory developed by Baltan for designers and artists who focus their practice around social, economic, political and environmental issues, so that they can grow their own voice and position themselves in these topics.”

I really enjoyed the trajectory – getting to know a group of interesting designers and artists, participating in workshops outside my usual mode of practice, having conversations and exchanges that pushed what I know, and how I position myself.

Baltan made a podcast series featuring the particpants – Camilla Carmack, Lieke Mangindaan, Asja Keeman, Rosalie Bak, Sarah Kaushik, Talisa Harjono, and Agat Sharma. Each person was asked to make a 5-minute sound piece, which they listen to with a partner (or two) and then discuss.

I had a lovely conversation with Baltan Lab’s co-director Lorenzo Gerbi and Marleen van Bergeijk, in which we touch upon quite a few subjects – the idea of control, the position of an artist in the current economic model, the masks you have to wear, and a lot more – all of which can be found here:

I also really enjoyed the conversation between Talisa and Agat. Not just because they’re now friends of mine, but also because they invoke two things I love – Georges Perec, and David Attenborough.

I’m looking forward to listening to the whole series over the coming weeks!

The entire series can be found on Soundcloud and Spotify.