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)
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