Entering the Black Box
Jos Jansen
The Eriskay Connection
Softcover
64 pages
195 x 280 mm
2012
ISBN 9789081838443
In his second photo book, documentary photographer and psychologist Jos Jansen investigates the mystic nature of high-tech research. He gained access to the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, an ‘open’ but still heavily guarded world, in which he explored the relationship between people and technology. Jansen focuses in particular on three important aspects of modern scientific research: scale, complexity and abstraction. In an associative manner, he shows fragments of a world which is simultaneously alienating, fascinating and unfathomable.
One of the most important driving forces in modern high-tech research is miniaturisation. Increasingly conducted at nano level and sometimes even at atomic level, this technology enables scientists to reach down to a depth of existence that can only be represented by mathematical formulas and scale models. This domain – which the French anthropologist and sociologist of science Bruno Latour calls ‘the black box’ – is the place where, in his view, science becomes ‘dark’.
About the Artist
Jos Jansen (NL) is a visual artist. He holds a master’s degree in psychology from Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In addition, he studied documentary photography and film at AKV|St. Joost, Academy for Art and Design in the Netherlands (BA and MA). He obtained his bachelor’s degree with honours (cum laude) in 2012.
About the Publisher
The Eriskay Connection is a Dutch studio for book design and an independent publisher. We focus on contemporary storytelling at the intersection of photography, research and writing. In close collaboration with authors we make books as autonomous bodies of work that provide us with new and necessary insights into the world around us. The key for us is to convey the essence of their work through high quality editing, design and production. Our editions are mainly offset printed and bound in The Netherlands and we strive to work with local producers and sustainable materials as much as possible.
