The more I try to represent my ideas in a specific form , the more I realise that this is almost impossible as they are in constant transformation by the process of research . My intention may seem totally altered from the slightest shift in focus.
My initial interest lied in how the myths feed our personal fantasy and how this could serve as a starting point to personal transformation, and as a result ,to cultural evolution.
I believe that through the myths and fairytales found in our culture, we all encountered the storytelling of a hero or heroine who journeys through fantastical adventures only to discover his or her inner self.
Apuleius ‘ the Metamorphoses of Lucius, or the Golden Ass ':
“ I wondered whether the stones I kicked against were really, perhaps petrified
men and whether the birds I heard singing were people in fathered disguises and I began to entertain doubts about the trees around the house, and even about the faucets through which the fountains played..”
men and whether the birds I heard singing were people in fathered disguises and I began to entertain doubts about the trees around the house, and even about the faucets through which the fountains played..”
There is something in the nature of fantasy that really intrigues me;there seems to be a flow of information between the internal and external worlds we inhabit.
We are at first inspired from mythology and folklores that surround us, and then transform them in a
personal setting. Even if our fantasies seem to be “borrowed” from our culture, they still have the power to reveal our inner selves.
The senses of the outer body are linked to 'souls ' inside the brain, which include ' the imaginative soul, or fantasy' according to the Neoplatonist scheme of Robert Fludd ( 'Vision of the Triple Soul in the Body' from Utriusque Cosmi, 1617)
At the heart of every fantasy, lies the desire for a personal evolution, as well as all the possible scenarios for our life to come. Fantasies provide substitute of what life lacks and give us strength to endure.
personal setting. Even if our fantasies seem to be “borrowed” from our culture, they still have the power to reveal our inner selves.
The senses of the outer body are linked to 'souls ' inside the brain, which include ' the imaginative soul, or fantasy' according to the Neoplatonist scheme of Robert Fludd ( 'Vision of the Triple Soul in the Body' from Utriusque Cosmi, 1617)
At the heart of every fantasy, lies the desire for a personal evolution, as well as all the possible scenarios for our life to come. Fantasies provide substitute of what life lacks and give us strength to endure.
I am interested in people influenced by what they read, by the movies and other cultural materials they watch, people who live their most treasured stories.
I consider this to be a kind of achievement without which one’s life would be passionless, lacking hope and forward momentum.
I am also interested in the dark side of fantasising when people being trapped into the novels and movies they watch, consequently are so immersed into their own fantasised world ,that they miss out on real life or cannot communicate with others.
At this point, I’m thinking of videorecording conversations of people, revealing their private mythologies. I consider it being an imaginary journey between differing mental worlds, a labyrinth-like psychological structure.
Inside the conversation, two different belief systems are confronting each other. I believe that the reoccurring reversal of the two belief systems, will suddenly lead to a parallel synchronised way of thinking that is going to reveal their similar identities.
I’m thinking of using the “space” of conversations as a tool for discovery, and a tool for poetic constructions. I consider them to be a structure , a three dimensional space whose inhabitants utilise and through which they reconstruct meaning.
In ancient years, medieval monastic practices, known as the art of memory, used a text as a foundation for composition and invention. Such practices where based on a fully individual new composition from one’s own reading of the biblical text. It was supposed to bring together in this new structure, distinct “places” , images, texts or signs, as recalled from associational memory. Another important value in monastic life was to bring an individual's discoveries into the public domain, while all this was understood to be acts of “invention”.
The words uttered inside a conversation and the meaning residing, can act for me as the foundation text used in these medieval monastic practices.
I imagine it as an experiment, which will hopefully lead to a “ cross cultural space” and political influence of heterogeneous people’s histories and languages.
In all that I also see a performative quality, which really interests me, as it is like trying to create a plot-line from ordinary people and interact with them.
I hope that something like that might offer possibilities for thinking differently.
My aim would be to prove the degree of familiarity between the inner worlds of people…Familiarity that exists between things perceived as dissimilar, sameness in otherness. Many fantasies are drawn from the fiction , art and myths surrounding our culture… what thought to be a unique fantasy is probably shared by others. In our everyday life we talk so little about our fantasies that it seems quite possible that we will never find out the commonalities. We can use that commonality to foster intimate ties between us. If we do so, it seems to me quite possible for us to live our utopian scenario in real life.
Another aim would also be to accept the differences in others. While enjoying excursions into the believe world of others; we expand the boundaries of our “known” world for seeing immeasurable dimensions open around us…
If we do so, it seems to me quite possible not only to script our personal scenarios in our fantasies, but to live a collective utopian one, in real life.
