Overview
126 Artist – Run Gallery & Studios proudly presents saccades, a solo exhibition of work by Alaz Okudan, in collaboration with Artspace Studios, Galway.
This exhibition presents a body of work which challenges human vision through photographs, oscillating between the incidental and deliberate. Saccadic eye movement is a rapid, unconscious movement of the eyes from one fixation point to another. These take place approximately three times per second and reflect the brain’s search for the data it needs for current purposes. Taking the phenomenon as its conceptual foundation, the work speculates how photography, in both its photochemical and digital forms, mirrors and contrasts our neurological apparatus of seeing. The collection of images plays with scale and temporality, moving between analogue and digital registers of making and looking. It is an attempt to think about what the eyes see, and fail to see, during saccadic movements, and what eventually is registered in memory.
Through the two processes, saccades investigates photography’s dual capacity: to capture what escapes the eye’s restless scanning, and to make connections between seemingly unrelated and disconnected moments.
Alaz Okudan is a photographer and a PhD researcher with a background in media and visual studies. He enjoys looking at infra-ordinary aspects of life that lie beneath the threshold of everyday attention through the lens of visual media. Alaz is interested in hidden and neglected stories from the history of visual technologies. His ongoing PhD investigation at the University of Galway’s Centre for Creative Technologies is a critical examination of accidents and failures of emergent AI technologies. He experiments in both photochemical and digital forms of image-making. Alaz is a darkroom member at Artspace Studios. He lives in Galway and roams the streets of the city.
Exhibition Launch: Friday 21st August at 6pm
Runs: August 21st – September 6th
Open Daily 12pm – 6pm
Curated by Hannah Daly
Workshop – Black & White Film Development with photographer Alaz Okudan
Saturday 5th September 2026 – 1-3pm
126 Artist – Run Gallery
This workshop invites you to take part in developing black and white film. Designed as a basic introduction to photochemistry, film developing equipment, and the practical tips and tricks of managing negatives in the chemically mediated world of the darkroom, it welcomes both newcomers and those looking to refresh their existing knowledge.
Due to limited time, the demonstration will be carried out on a single roll of black and white film provided by the workshop facilitator. Participants are welcome to bring their own exposed black and white films, which may be developed depending on the number of participants and time available.
Estimated workshop duration is 2 hours.
This workshop is organised as part of the photography exhibition saccades by Alaz Okudan, curated by Hannah Daly, in collaboration with Artspace Studios.
