Primitive Sky / Sightings

In the presentation the phenomena related to the sky and atmosphere and imagination are discussed. Relying on Artūras Raila's vision, which was later reproduced in the video (according to the artist, “I tried to visualise in 2002 the phenomena I saw in 1980”), we will talk about both the so-called “paranormal” phenomena and the figures actually seen above us or flying through space. They are recorded due to “objective” attentiveness, and due to subjective imagination. Along with the newer smartphone models, there are new possibilities for seeing the sky and the trend for sharing unexpected images on social networks (due to the contemporary people’s interest in photographing unexpected changes in the atmosphere, the Northern Lights are suddenly “discovered” in different parts of Lithuania, celestial bodies that rarely pass by our planet are caught in other parts of the world, such as the Green Comet, the detailed recording of the surface of the Moon, etc.).
Gazing at the night sky or the clouds smoothed by the sunrays, a person is also visited by pareidolia (sub)visions, and even more astonishing possibilities of visions open up when leaving the Earth’s orbit. Today’s visual devices that dissect the atmosphere and space have allowed astrophysicists to perceive things that were previously unimaginable, and the sophisticated equipment of space telescopes adjusts the current scientific knowledge about distant unknown points of the universe almost every month. In turn, what is seen by terrestrial instruments and the eyes of aircraft pilots also allows us to talk about the new intersections between cosmology and UFO folklore and research into unidentified aerial phenomena still shrouded in military secrecy.

Artūras Raila. Primitive Sky. 1980–2002

Skaidra Trilupaitytė – Art Historian, Cultural Policy Researcher, Senior Researcher at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Lecturer at Vilnius Academy of Arts.