BIFOKAL is a studio for cross disciplinary research and activity between distinct professionals. It is founded by two architects Natasha Sljivancanin and Eli Goldstein in collaboration with Biomaterialism and Serendipit:us.
The name BIFOKAL refers to the condition of SEEing from two different perspectives. In anthropology the bifocal principle is based on the assumption that the peoples of the world, both as individuals and a social groups, are increasingly aware that they are embedded in large social, political and economic systems and that they have developed ways of making sense of these systems and their relative places in them. The person wearing bifocal glasses moves from reading things close up to reading things far away and back again with a flick of his/her own eyes. And like the person wearing bifocals, our capacity to do this is provided by new technologies. BIFOKAL attempts to investigate how this universal layered-ness of reality can be used through different communicative mediums and experimental activities to stimulate curiosity for the strangeness of other cultures and disciplines, and perhaps even more importantly, the strangeness of our own. Any locality has and probably is in itself a culture. But it is not distinguishable from a given environment unless juxtaposed to another. In the meeting point between two others, another something can occur.
BIFOKALs intention is to create a space for the dissemination of art, architecture and new technologies that serves as a platform to stimulate public interest in, knowledge of and appreciation for investigations in cross disciplinary work and to promote international dialogue and creative exchange between Norwegian and international artists. The red thread of all the projects featured in this center is fusion of particular professional knowledge and interests. Once put in a single frame, these collaborations will lead to a number of discoveries going back and forth from the individual to the global, from the physical to the imaginary and from the traditional to the innovative.
BIFOKALs program is to promote, curate, teach, and develop interdisciplinary work. We intend to actualize these goals (interests) by funding artwork (artists in residence program), organizing exhibitions and lecture series, and educating (summer student workshops).
We think of BIFOKAL as a broad cross disciplinary international channel of communication for exploring and juxtaposing architectural, artistic and technological cultures from different localities in the world.
