Digital r/p/m proposition #1: Planetarium

A virtual installation at the Eise Eisinga Planetarium, Franeker, the Netherlands 

By Paul Cullen Archive, 2022–2023

This interactive, virtual project realises a speculative proposal made by artist Paul Cullen in 2011 to install works from his r/p/m (revolutions per minute) series around the globe at historical centres for scientific study (sites that the artist had visited and researched). For Proposition #1: Planetarium, Cullen proposed situating r/p/m artworks, including Lost (2007), The Orange Theory (2007), and Geographer [1] and [2] (1995), at the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker, the Netherlands. Propositions #2, #3, #4 and #5 locate artworks at the Octagon Room in the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England; Musick Memorial Radio Station on Naupata Reserve, Aotearoa; Linnaeus Garden in Uppsala, Sweden; and the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. The Paul Cullen Archive will realise propositions 1–4 as virtual installations between December 2022 and March 2023.

Cullen initially presented these hypothetical site-related r/p/m installations as a series of five interchangeable gatefold covers wrapping the publication Paul Cullen: r/p/m, published by split/fountain in 2011. This publication includes documentation of Cullen's r/p/m series installed in the artist's Panmure studio in Tāmaki Makaurau. Describing the works, he notes that: "each sculpture proposes, though fails to perform, some kind of rational purposes such as demonstration, observation or measurement." 

For Digital r/p/m, the Paul Cullen Archive has drawn on the instructional notes and diagrams provided by the artist on the r/p/m publication covers. Proposition #1: Planetarium includes a written concept, site images, selected r/p/m sculptures, and annotated floor plan indicating the placement of works, architectural features and existing objects (this two-sided publication cover is pictured above). The artist's concept reads: 

"The Eise Eisinga Planetarium is an orrery, a moving model of the solar system, built between 1774 and 1781 by Eise Eisinga, a wool carder in Franeker, The Netherlands. Eisinga constructed the mechanism for his orrey in the ceiling of a canal house from cord, wood, and 10,000 hand-made nails. A system of weights and counter-weights drives the mechanism, a modified Frisian clock controls the real-time movements of the planets in the orrery. The visible face of the orrery is the ceiling of the lounge room directly beneath the mechanism."

"This proposition locates four of the Revolutions per Minute sculptures in the lounge of the Planetarium; each of these sculptures has model-like and planetary associations. Two of these, Geographer [1] and Geographer [2], would be located on opposite longitudinal walls of the space, Orange Theory would sit in the middle of the space while Lost would be positioned near the window."

—Paul Cullen, 2011

Using LiDAR and photogrammetry, the archive has created 3D models of artworks in Cullen's former studio and collaborated with offshore creatives to realise scans of international locations. These elements congregate in the open-source platform Mozilla Hubs (scroll down for the Mozilla Hubs room link). The r/p/m virtual installations explore how notions of space are simultaneously anchored within a given moment while also interlaced with historical traces left behind. 

For Planetarium, a digital model of the orrery room is situated directly on the r/p/m proposition #1 publication cover over the artist's floor plan that indicates the position of artworks with a letter and visual mark. Out of the four r/p/m pieces proposed by the artist for Planetarium, only Geographer [1] and The Orange Theory are held by the Paul Cullen Archive. Models of these sculptures are placed in the virtual Planetarium as closely as possible to the artist's indicated position.

In Cullen's floor plan, The Orange Theory (H) is positioned directly below the painted sun at the centre of the orrery and a golden orb suspended from wire representing planet Earth. However, in the 3D model of the Planetarium, scanned in October 2022, a circular table supporting a model world globe sits in position H, preventing exact placement. Of course, this could be easily removed in the virtual world, but we have opted to leave this in position.

As Cullen specified, Geographer [1] is posited on one of the space's longitudinal walls (position D). However, an artwork titled Moon (2013) replaces Geographer [2] in position E and sits on the floor instead. Part of the r/p/m series, Moon has model-like and planetary associations similar to the pieces left out. A row of four chairs facing into the space, captured in the LiDAR scan, replace Lost in position K.

Artworks proposed by Cullen to be situated in the Eise Eisinga Planetarium: K, E, H, D

3D models of artworks situated in the Eise Eisinga Planetarium virtual installation in 2022

Click the links below to view, rotate and scale individual models.

Digital r/p/m credits and aknowledgments

Planetarium LiDAR scan by Tomek Dersu Aaron (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Artwork models by Paul Cullen Archive (Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa / New Zealand)
Artwork animation by Felipe Pulfer (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

r/p/m publication covers (2011): artwork by Paul Cullen, design by Jayme Yen and Layla Tweedie-Cullen.

This online project is part of Huarere: Weather Eye, Weather Ear, Te Tuhi (Pakuranga, Tāmaki Makaurau), curated by Janine Randerson as a contribution to the World Weather Network, 2022–2023.

Thanks to
Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
Janine Randerson
Adrie Warmenhoven (directeur/conservator, Koninklijk Eise Eisinga Planetarium)
p. mule, et al.

Produced with support from Creative New Zealand.

Other r/p/m propositions