Skopeîn, from the ancient Greek meaning “to look closely,” opens a view through the microscope that enables you to see the inner life of the plants, details which we can’t see with our human eye. Growth, withering, decomposition will be shown in minutia.
COUNTRY : Germany YEAR : 2017 DURATION : 2m ARTIST, DIRECTOR : Julia Herold SOUND DESIGN : Mengxuan Sun
Director statement : In Skopeîn, I explore the hidden dimensions of plant life by observing botanical specimens through a microscope. This close examination reveals structures, movements, and transformations that remain invisible to the unaided eye. I have long been fascinated by the small and the unseen, by the moments and materials that lie just beyond our everyday perception. Plants, in particular, hold a fragile temporality: their beauty, their decay, and the rapid shifts that occur as they grow and wither have always drawn my attention. Through magnification, these transitions become tangible, unfolding at a scale where their complexity can be witnessed with newfound clarity.
The specimens were deliberately altered through the application of water and chemical substances, causing the plants to distort, dissolve, or reorganize themselves. These interventions expose unfamiliar visual qualities—unexpected colours, delicate ruptures, collapsing structures—that reveal another side of botanical beauty. What appears stable or harmonious at first glance becomes, under the microscope, a dynamic landscape shaped by constant transformation. This process highlights both the vulnerability and resilience inherent in organic matter.
The sound accompanying the work was recorded directly during the microscopic observations, capturing the subtle mechanical noises produced by the instrument itself. These recordings, with their repetitive clicks, shifts, and vibrations, introduce an acoustic dimension to the visual examination. They were later developed further in a sound design by Mengxuan Sun, who wove the raw textures into a composition that mirrors the microscale processes seen on screen. The result is a sensory field in which image and sound mutually reinforce the act of close looking.
Through these combined elements, Skopeîn reflects on how beauty persists, destabilises, and reconfigures itself at scales and moments usually beyond human perception
Bio : Julia Herold is a visual artist based in Berlin. She studied Moving Image at the Berlin University of the Arts. Her practice engages with everyday life, both in content and material, often focusing on small, overlooked segments of the familiar. She works across installation, video, painting, and photography, frequently reinterpreting ordinary objects and processes by placing them in new contexts or observing them from unexpected perspectives. Themes of transience and transformation recur throughout her work, as she explores how the seemingly mundane can shift, decay, or take on new meaning when examined differently. Her works have been presented in various group exhibitions.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
