Iluminace 2025, 37(3):171-198 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1823

Moving in Circles: Space and Place in Media Archaeology and the Art of Jop Horst

Floris Paalman ORCID...
University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands ✉

This article is a media-archaeological investigation of the work by Dutch artist and experimental filmmaker Jop Horst (1961–2014). He was interested in the defining principles and features of moving image media: stillness/movement, on/off, light/dark, present/absent. He built his own zoetropes and produced Super 8 and 16mm trick films. Old appliances, such as ventilators, toasters, and washing machines, were turned into media machines, while overhead projectors showed truly moving images of larvae. The dispositif of his installations collided with the exhibition spaces, such as an old mill, a former school, or an aviary, often in his hometown, Hengelo. This article examines the spatial implications of Horst’s work to understand the spatial equivalent of non-linear time as a premise of media archaeology. To that end, the dual concept of sur place (the state of being in motion yet going nowhere) and the “circular trace” (a physical inscription or pathway that links space and time) is proposed.

Keywords: s ur place, media archaeology, expanded cinema, Jop Horst

Received: June 26, 2025; Revised: November 3, 2025; Accepted: November 25, 2025; Published: February 3, 2026  Show citation

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Paalman, F. (2025). Moving in Circles: Space and Place in Media Archaeology and the Art of Jop Horst. Iluminace, 37(3), 171-198. doi: 10.58193/ilu.1823
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