In Manifest Destiny Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács explore the boundaries of what we can perceive in time and space, fictionalizing this with a voice over that is based on real stories from scientists. The video reveals the limitations of our tinted imagination, while also showing how we desire to look beyond these boundaries and conquer new territories (our Manifest Destiny).

For years the fictional scientist in the voice-over based on interviews with real scientists – has been doing research on alien planets where there may be life. In contrast, the visual narrative tells about a journey within the existing mental framework, namely a trip through outdated visions of the moon and Mars, an imaginary planet, a savage, empty Earth and finally an observatory, the point of departure for the unknown. Among other places, the images were made on the plateau of Chile’s Atacama Desert, where at an altitude of 25000 meters there are extremely sensitive telescopes searching for planets outside our solar system that are similar to the earth, out on the limits of what we can perceive in time and space.

Petra Heck 2009

Manifest Destiny, 2009, HDvideo, 17 min.
Production, direction, camera, script: Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács
Music/sound effects: Berend Dubbe
Actor: John Pope
3D animation: Gerjan van Ouwendorp
Interior camera: Bert Oosterveld
 

Persijn Broersen (1974)  and Margit Lukács (1973) currently live and work in California. Their work has been exhibited internationally, among others at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, MNAC Bukarest, and Muhka (Mechelen). Their films have been screened at Centre Pompidou, Paris and at several film festivals such as New York Underground Film festival and International Film festival Rotterdam. They have been residents at the IASPIS program in Stockholm and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.