'Develop your project proposal to plan a challenging and self-directed program of study':
Now i sense that the project proposal I had to present at the beginning of our course, was just an assemblage of abstract conceptions. I was directed towards them more by intuition and by personal interest; after a while i understood that with the slightest shift in focus the whole research changes.
I believe that the 'self directed program' of study can be evidenced through all the vague ideas i explored in the beginning to finally reach the form of my research question. Little by little all that is possible to be done was separated from the vague and the impossible.
'Articulate a clear understanding of the methodology and context of your creative practice in both written and verbal forms.'
The context and methodology of my creative practice could be found in my research paper, in blog posts, as well as in the context of our group presentations'. In my personal practice within the last few months, the practice based research and the context fall under the same category.
'Demonstrate a critical engagement with practice based research and contribute actively to debate and discussion'
I never quite liked how open to possibilities my initial aims seemed to me in comparison to what really happens. I always have had to overcome this initial fear. However, a link to my first experiments can be found here.
Concerning my contribution to debate and discussion, my tutors Jonathan Kearney and Ed Kelly are the most appropriate people to answer. Personally i really enjoy discussing with people; i consider it vital in the context of an art college as only sharing ideas and discussing them could help us develop ourselves more.
Sunday, 29 May 2011
Drafts
I started experimenting with the idea of an animation, using as a material source Muybridge's stills.
The idea is one of a creature moving while going through several metamorphoses.
As i started i was more concerned about the overall movement, i wanted the movement to have a sense of flow, to be organic in a way, even if it does not constitute of too many frames. I sense that the metamorphoses should be as slow as possible, and should be driven by analogies (similarities) in the appearance of two figures.
In a while, i got also concerned in finding a way to combine the aesthetics of these old photographs with other elements more colorful which would give me more freedom in creating shapes and creatures. I also tried to use some photoshop's drawing tools but i am not so satisfied with the result. Maybe photoshop's collaging combined with hand drawing would be a better thought.
I consider the following collages just quick drafts.
I believe that the most important thing among all is the movement that this creature would have, something that someone is not easy to understand just from one frame.
The idea is one of a creature moving while going through several metamorphoses.
As i started i was more concerned about the overall movement, i wanted the movement to have a sense of flow, to be organic in a way, even if it does not constitute of too many frames. I sense that the metamorphoses should be as slow as possible, and should be driven by analogies (similarities) in the appearance of two figures.
In a while, i got also concerned in finding a way to combine the aesthetics of these old photographs with other elements more colorful which would give me more freedom in creating shapes and creatures. I also tried to use some photoshop's drawing tools but i am not so satisfied with the result. Maybe photoshop's collaging combined with hand drawing would be a better thought.
I consider the following collages just quick drafts.
I believe that the most important thing among all is the movement that this creature would have, something that someone is not easy to understand just from one frame.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Experiments' documentation
I tried some projections through different kind of mirrors, lens and prisms. I used a bathroom round mirror, a cheap convex security mirror, an old lens from an antique camera obscura, and a right angle prism.
When figures are projected through the prism and lens, the projections are multiplied; someone can see thrown on the wall both the actual projection and its reflection. The figure appears shattered in space.
The reflection seems to be slightly distorted in colors and shape while some strange circular beams of light appear on the wall.
I realized that an easy way to project on the ceiling would be to use the convex mirror. The resolution of the reflection though is quite poor, something that probably has to do with the quality of the mirror used, as well as with the quality of the projector. I also expected that the figures would be slightly distorted to fit in a round shape. I was quite disappointed as something like that was not so obvious. The image was also reversed. The right side appear to be the left side of the reflection.
In the following image the upper reflection on the ceiling seemed to be melting, while the heads of the figures where reversed. I was trying to find an angle of reflection where their heads would be joined together.
I tried to project on the curves of the curtains.
I also tried to project on 'in between' spaces like the corridor, and under the beam of the door.
In the end what i really enjoyed was the figure which appears as a wallpaper on the screen of my laptop, projected on different textures and materials, on a wooden closet and some clothes which were there by accident. As i was moving the projector, the figure was animated, jumping through different materials , hiding in the dark and traversing the space of the corridor.
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
The Wonder of Mirror
Richard Gregory in his book 'Mirrors in mind'(ch. Histories and Mysteries) writes that 'the wonder of mirrors is reflected in their name, 'mirror' being closely related to 'miracle' in Latin: miratorium means 'mirror' and miraculum means 'object of wonder', exceeding the known powers of nature.'
The wonder of mirror derives from the fact that it is 'like a window, except that it presents a fully three dimensional visual world in a wrong place' (Richard G.,p.26). Mirror subtracts images from the environment and dislocates them; mirror images seem to be real objects' terrifying double, with a life of their own as their perspective change with movements of the viewer. Melchior- Bonnet Sabrine in her book 'Mirror' writes: '...The reflection creates the sensation of an ethereal world looming beyond the mirror' while she continues describing reflections as 'an invisible "elsewhere"in the heart of the visible'.(p.101)
It came into my hands a children's book, full of experiments with mirrors and lenses. In the picture, the children are trying to figure out where the image of the soldier is in space. I found it really amusing; it demonstrates how mirrors invite us into a play of appearances.
The brief history of how mirrors were used in the past is also very interesting: 'In Egypt...mirrors were sacred, and were buried with the dead...As the face is seen through the mirror, it was believed that a mirror placed under the head of the dead person in the tomb allowed the soul- the Ka or Double- to pass through the mirror, to visit the gods.'(Richard G.,p.48)
In China and Japan there were the mysterious magic mirrors which 'have the remarkable property of projecting invisible designs onto a distant wall or screen' while 'the roundness of the mirror represented the cosmic world of the sky; its brilliance, the intelligence of the universe.' (Richard G., p.50)
Mirrors were also associated with scrying and hypnotism. The Arabian historian Ibn- Khahaldun as quoted in Richard G.(p.67) writes: 'The persons are mistaken in thinking they behold objects and visions in the mirror; a kind of misty curtain intervenes between their eyes and the bright mirror and on this appears the phantasms of their imagination' while Richard further continues writing about hypnotism: 'the curious and still not entirely understood hypnotic state, when the subject is susceptible to suggestion, was produced when the subject gazed on a shiny object.'
Mirror 's reflections create ambiguous shapes, allowing perception to create its own phantasms.
An example of such an illusion conjuring is Pepper's Ghost:
'Reflections have been used to produce stage ghosts since large sheets of glass became available in the middle of the nineteenth century. Pepper's Ghost is named after Henry Pepper(1821-1900),...Pepper's Ghost depends on a large part-transparent mirror(or simply a sheet of glass) which optically combines reflected actors with other actors seen through the glass...The intensities of lighting are varied to make them visible or invisible, or combined as transparent ghosts...It is commonly seen in one's window at dusk: the room gradually appears as though it lies outside in the semi darkness.' (Richard G.,p.178)
Another trick performed with the use of a large curved mirror, created the illusion of the image of a god being suspended in nothingness:
Today full dome projections use large convex mirrors in order to create the impression of another ethereal world looming onto the ceiling. Usually we encounter them in planetariums, but have been explored in artworks as well:
Image taken from the site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2007/10/02/planetarium_film_feature.shtml
After a short research into the internet i also discovered the artist Ursula Berlot who seems to use reflective materials and kinetic light installations in order to create her environments:
Images taken from the artist's webpage: http://www.ljudmila.org/~berlotur/podstrani/en-portfolio.html
Melchior-Bonnet Sabine writes about glasses, prisms, enlarging and distorting mirrors:'...all of this optical machinery aims to blur dimensions and distances, to change perspectives and scales, while allowing one to traverse through oddities and incoherencies of the world' (Melchior-Bonnet S.,p.229)
She mentions that 'Leonardo da Vinci enjoyed creating monstrous forms and constructing optical chambers in which the disturbances of the images and the explosions of space lent themselves to dreaming.'(Melchior-Bonnet S.,p.236)
Melchior-Bonnet S. also describes the 'temple of laziness': 'anonymously invented in 1667 and described
as a "cave decorated with large, crystal mirrors cut into different sides". All sorts of fantastic images decorate the walls of the cave and are reflected there. Through the prisms, the fragmented images are randomly juxtaposed, so that one can simultaneously see "a bit of landscape, a small part of a chateau, the face of a beautiful lady, the wings of a cupid or the ruins of an old palace- all in the mirror"'.(Melchior-Bonnet S., 241)
Kircher used an inclined mirror in order to create a device through which the visitor could see his own image undergo one metamorphosis after an other. He placed the mirror on an axis where the reflections of the human face and of bizarre animals painted on octagonal wheel converge. His aim was that the optical reflections would move the observer to spiritual reflections on his own nature. The creator of this machine wrote: I myself have such a machine, which sends everyone into great raptures when they look into the mirror and instead of their normal countenance discern now the visage of a wolf, now that of a dog or some other animal.'
Athanasius Kircher, De Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, Rome, 1646
A similar modern version of Kircher's machine could be created using modern technologies nowdays:
Image from the site: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/motion/motartists.htm
The artist Rigid Waves writes about his work:
a hidden camera takes a picture of the viewer and transfers his image to a projection screen that resembles a framed mirror. The closer the viewer approaches, the more unrealistic the image becomes. The movements of the viewer distort the images – they are delayed, speeded up, manipulated, fragmented or frozen. The viewer cannot pin down his digital twin. The asynchrony of real time and image time distances the viewer from his digital image and enables him to see himself in different guises – fragmented, fractured or from behind. Acoustic signals are linked to the image processing system and mark the position from which the user can influence his computergenerated image using gestures and changes of position. Rigid Waves uses interactive media technology to represent the separation of body and perception alluded to by Echo and Narcissist
What influence could have on people the reflection of their distorted image?
Kircher believed that animal metamorphosis would move the observer to spiritual reflections on his own nature.
Richard G. mentions that there is a substantial psycho-analytic literature on the development in children of Self, and relation to Others, and mirrors are sometimes used. Experiments have been carried out using distorting mirrors to estimate how people see themselves. Traub and Orbach(1964) made a flexible mirror that could be distorted, concave or convex, with four motor-driven clamps controlled by the subject of the experiment. The Adjustable Body- Distorting Mirror was designed to explore the visual perception of the physical appearance of the body. A full-length mirror was made that was adjustable to reflect the observer on a 'distortion continuum', ranging from extremely distorted to completely undistorted. It was found that subjects tolerated quite large distortions- and they sometimes forgot what they looked like.
He further mentions that ' looking glasses have been used for psychiatric and weight-control therapy...Gradually the patients corrected their distorted mental images of themselves, and in some cases were able to change their eating habits so that they could achieve a healthy body weight.'(Richard G.,p.11)
Another example which indicates how powerful is the effect of our reflection on the way we perceive ourselves is mentioned again in Richard's G. book:
People who have lost a limb in an accident may experience the missing arm or leg as though it is still present. Worse, they may experience pain, which may be excruciating, in the missing limb. Recently V.S. Ramachandran, with his wife Diane and S.Cobb, found that for ten out of ten cases of losses of arms, the phantom limb and the pain disappeared when the patient could see a normal hand 'superimposed' with a mirror. Trying this fro fifteen minutes a day over three weeks could make the feeling and pain of the phantom limb shrink and disappear for good.( Richard G.,p.188)
Melchior-Bonnet Sabine writes: ' the mirror is this "no man's land" between the concrete life of the everyday and the place of dreams.' While she cites jean Cocteau suggesting that ' mirrors are the promise of an elsewhere, of a luminous night beyond the real, which makes it possible to reach the poetic universe.'(Melchior-Bonnet Sabine p.263)
The wonder of mirror derives from the fact that it is 'like a window, except that it presents a fully three dimensional visual world in a wrong place' (Richard G.,p.26). Mirror subtracts images from the environment and dislocates them; mirror images seem to be real objects' terrifying double, with a life of their own as their perspective change with movements of the viewer. Melchior- Bonnet Sabrine in her book 'Mirror' writes: '...The reflection creates the sensation of an ethereal world looming beyond the mirror' while she continues describing reflections as 'an invisible "elsewhere"in the heart of the visible'.(p.101)
It came into my hands a children's book, full of experiments with mirrors and lenses. In the picture, the children are trying to figure out where the image of the soldier is in space. I found it really amusing; it demonstrates how mirrors invite us into a play of appearances.
The brief history of how mirrors were used in the past is also very interesting: 'In Egypt...mirrors were sacred, and were buried with the dead...As the face is seen through the mirror, it was believed that a mirror placed under the head of the dead person in the tomb allowed the soul- the Ka or Double- to pass through the mirror, to visit the gods.'(Richard G.,p.48)
In China and Japan there were the mysterious magic mirrors which 'have the remarkable property of projecting invisible designs onto a distant wall or screen' while 'the roundness of the mirror represented the cosmic world of the sky; its brilliance, the intelligence of the universe.' (Richard G., p.50)
Mirrors were also associated with scrying and hypnotism. The Arabian historian Ibn- Khahaldun as quoted in Richard G.(p.67) writes: 'The persons are mistaken in thinking they behold objects and visions in the mirror; a kind of misty curtain intervenes between their eyes and the bright mirror and on this appears the phantasms of their imagination' while Richard further continues writing about hypnotism: 'the curious and still not entirely understood hypnotic state, when the subject is susceptible to suggestion, was produced when the subject gazed on a shiny object.'
Mirror 's reflections create ambiguous shapes, allowing perception to create its own phantasms.
An example of such an illusion conjuring is Pepper's Ghost:
'Reflections have been used to produce stage ghosts since large sheets of glass became available in the middle of the nineteenth century. Pepper's Ghost is named after Henry Pepper(1821-1900),...Pepper's Ghost depends on a large part-transparent mirror(or simply a sheet of glass) which optically combines reflected actors with other actors seen through the glass...The intensities of lighting are varied to make them visible or invisible, or combined as transparent ghosts...It is commonly seen in one's window at dusk: the room gradually appears as though it lies outside in the semi darkness.' (Richard G.,p.178)
Another trick performed with the use of a large curved mirror, created the illusion of the image of a god being suspended in nothingness:
Today full dome projections use large convex mirrors in order to create the impression of another ethereal world looming onto the ceiling. Usually we encounter them in planetariums, but have been explored in artworks as well:
For more information check the site : http://paulbourke.net/miscellaneous/domemirror/faq.html#mirror
Image taken from the site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2007/10/02/planetarium_film_feature.shtml
After a short research into the internet i also discovered the artist Ursula Berlot who seems to use reflective materials and kinetic light installations in order to create her environments:
Images taken from the artist's webpage: http://www.ljudmila.org/~berlotur/podstrani/en-portfolio.html
Melchior-Bonnet Sabine writes about glasses, prisms, enlarging and distorting mirrors:'...all of this optical machinery aims to blur dimensions and distances, to change perspectives and scales, while allowing one to traverse through oddities and incoherencies of the world' (Melchior-Bonnet S.,p.229)
She mentions that 'Leonardo da Vinci enjoyed creating monstrous forms and constructing optical chambers in which the disturbances of the images and the explosions of space lent themselves to dreaming.'(Melchior-Bonnet S.,p.236)
Melchior-Bonnet S. also describes the 'temple of laziness': 'anonymously invented in 1667 and described
as a "cave decorated with large, crystal mirrors cut into different sides". All sorts of fantastic images decorate the walls of the cave and are reflected there. Through the prisms, the fragmented images are randomly juxtaposed, so that one can simultaneously see "a bit of landscape, a small part of a chateau, the face of a beautiful lady, the wings of a cupid or the ruins of an old palace- all in the mirror"'.(Melchior-Bonnet S., 241)
Kircher used an inclined mirror in order to create a device through which the visitor could see his own image undergo one metamorphosis after an other. He placed the mirror on an axis where the reflections of the human face and of bizarre animals painted on octagonal wheel converge. His aim was that the optical reflections would move the observer to spiritual reflections on his own nature. The creator of this machine wrote: I myself have such a machine, which sends everyone into great raptures when they look into the mirror and instead of their normal countenance discern now the visage of a wolf, now that of a dog or some other animal.'
Athanasius Kircher, De Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, Rome, 1646
A similar modern version of Kircher's machine could be created using modern technologies nowdays:
Image from the site: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/motion/motartists.htm
The artist Rigid Waves writes about his work:
a hidden camera takes a picture of the viewer and transfers his image to a projection screen that resembles a framed mirror. The closer the viewer approaches, the more unrealistic the image becomes. The movements of the viewer distort the images – they are delayed, speeded up, manipulated, fragmented or frozen. The viewer cannot pin down his digital twin. The asynchrony of real time and image time distances the viewer from his digital image and enables him to see himself in different guises – fragmented, fractured or from behind. Acoustic signals are linked to the image processing system and mark the position from which the user can influence his computergenerated image using gestures and changes of position. Rigid Waves uses interactive media technology to represent the separation of body and perception alluded to by Echo and Narcissist
What influence could have on people the reflection of their distorted image?
Kircher believed that animal metamorphosis would move the observer to spiritual reflections on his own nature.
Richard G. mentions that there is a substantial psycho-analytic literature on the development in children of Self, and relation to Others, and mirrors are sometimes used. Experiments have been carried out using distorting mirrors to estimate how people see themselves. Traub and Orbach(1964) made a flexible mirror that could be distorted, concave or convex, with four motor-driven clamps controlled by the subject of the experiment. The Adjustable Body- Distorting Mirror was designed to explore the visual perception of the physical appearance of the body. A full-length mirror was made that was adjustable to reflect the observer on a 'distortion continuum', ranging from extremely distorted to completely undistorted. It was found that subjects tolerated quite large distortions- and they sometimes forgot what they looked like.
He further mentions that ' looking glasses have been used for psychiatric and weight-control therapy...Gradually the patients corrected their distorted mental images of themselves, and in some cases were able to change their eating habits so that they could achieve a healthy body weight.'(Richard G.,p.11)
Another example which indicates how powerful is the effect of our reflection on the way we perceive ourselves is mentioned again in Richard's G. book:
People who have lost a limb in an accident may experience the missing arm or leg as though it is still present. Worse, they may experience pain, which may be excruciating, in the missing limb. Recently V.S. Ramachandran, with his wife Diane and S.Cobb, found that for ten out of ten cases of losses of arms, the phantom limb and the pain disappeared when the patient could see a normal hand 'superimposed' with a mirror. Trying this fro fifteen minutes a day over three weeks could make the feeling and pain of the phantom limb shrink and disappear for good.( Richard G.,p.188)
Melchior-Bonnet Sabine writes: ' the mirror is this "no man's land" between the concrete life of the everyday and the place of dreams.' While she cites jean Cocteau suggesting that ' mirrors are the promise of an elsewhere, of a luminous night beyond the real, which makes it possible to reach the poetic universe.'(Melchior-Bonnet Sabine p.263)
Monday, 2 May 2011
Work in progress
The research i have been involved in, was about the mutations of forms in myths and about possible ways the former could be visualized through modern technology's interface. Mutations, as represented in myths, reveal a delight in the potency of change, a built in dynamic in all living beings and a magic aspect of reality.
After the submission of my research paper, i started reading the book ' Phantasmagoria' of Marina Warner were i came across the term 'haunted media' in order to express how modern technologies and first illusionist optical devices communicate imagination's desires and terrors and as a result open up unimagined universes.
Robertson's Phantasmagoria
Image from:http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/PHANTASMAGORIE.html
For Warner the projections are always supernatural creatures, while some of the words she uses to describe optical technologies are: eidolon, spectre, phantom
Images from : http://wernernekes.de/00_cms/cms/front_content.phd?idart-794
My initial idea, was to document the conversation between my mother and a friend. These two people have different religious belief systems.The theme of the conversation would be about some of religion's mythic stories and miracles. I intended to use the orginal footage as a basis on which i would project my own fantasies. The people invoved though, did not happen to interact as i expected; i am not satisfied with the recorded material which probably i am not going to use.
Simultaneously, i had started reading the book: 'Devices of Wonder' of Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak and got really interested in vanished mechanisms of the past: prisms, mirrors, microscopes, telescopes, magic lanterns, camera obscuras...
All these mechanisms involved some kind of interaction, as well as a distortion of appearances, a kind of mutation of forms.The observer had to shift his position and another 'reality' was being revealed to him.
At the moment what i have in mind is a dark space where figures float free. A close example is the work '7 lights'(2005-2008) of the artist Paul Chan. This artwork seems to be a play of shadows and light, a sort of a window into another realm while it is strongly associated with biblical accounts of creation and destruction.
Image from: http://www.museomagazine.com/#993419/PAUL-CHAN
I came across the painting of Goya ' They rise up joyfully' and what i have in mind is to create something based on this painting, adding things as well as movement.
Iam also examining how changing images were produced by mechanisms of the past and what kind of visual vocabulary they used.
Mercury and Venus
image from book 'devices of wonder' of Barbara Stafford and Frances Terpak
In this painting the physical relationship of the god and goddess changes when the metal dial affixed to the center of the object is rotated, dividing and redividing their bodies.
Images from: http://wernernekes.de/00_cms/cms/front_content.php?idart=794
and: http://pillanatgepek.c3.hu/en/kiallitas/werner-nekes-gyujtemeny/
In these images pictures or sections of pictures are placed in relationship to one another in order to give the pictures a new meaning. Through the combination of pictures it is possible to assemble different versions.
After the submission of my research paper, i started reading the book ' Phantasmagoria' of Marina Warner were i came across the term 'haunted media' in order to express how modern technologies and first illusionist optical devices communicate imagination's desires and terrors and as a result open up unimagined universes.
Robertson's Phantasmagoria
Image from:http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/PHANTASMAGORIE.html
For Warner the projections are always supernatural creatures, while some of the words she uses to describe optical technologies are: eidolon, spectre, phantom
Images from : http://wernernekes.de/00_cms/cms/front_content.phd?idart-794
My initial idea, was to document the conversation between my mother and a friend. These two people have different religious belief systems.The theme of the conversation would be about some of religion's mythic stories and miracles. I intended to use the orginal footage as a basis on which i would project my own fantasies. The people invoved though, did not happen to interact as i expected; i am not satisfied with the recorded material which probably i am not going to use.
Simultaneously, i had started reading the book: 'Devices of Wonder' of Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak and got really interested in vanished mechanisms of the past: prisms, mirrors, microscopes, telescopes, magic lanterns, camera obscuras...
All these mechanisms involved some kind of interaction, as well as a distortion of appearances, a kind of mutation of forms.The observer had to shift his position and another 'reality' was being revealed to him.
At the moment what i have in mind is a dark space where figures float free. A close example is the work '7 lights'(2005-2008) of the artist Paul Chan. This artwork seems to be a play of shadows and light, a sort of a window into another realm while it is strongly associated with biblical accounts of creation and destruction.
Image from: http://www.museomagazine.com/#993419/PAUL-CHAN
I came across the painting of Goya ' They rise up joyfully' and what i have in mind is to create something based on this painting, adding things as well as movement.
Iam also examining how changing images were produced by mechanisms of the past and what kind of visual vocabulary they used.
Mercury and Venus
image from book 'devices of wonder' of Barbara Stafford and Frances Terpak
In this painting the physical relationship of the god and goddess changes when the metal dial affixed to the center of the object is rotated, dividing and redividing their bodies.
Images from: http://wernernekes.de/00_cms/cms/front_content.php?idart=794
and: http://pillanatgepek.c3.hu/en/kiallitas/werner-nekes-gyujtemeny/
In these images pictures or sections of pictures are placed in relationship to one another in order to give the pictures a new meaning. Through the combination of pictures it is possible to assemble different versions.
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