self tracing self tracing empty slide

seeing & being seen

the paradox of appearing

Paradoxes of Appearing;

Essays on Art, Architecture & Philosophy,

ed. Michael Asgaard Anderson & Henrik Oxvig

(Baden; Lars Muller, 2009)

I came across this book in the MCA reading room after seeing the Olafur Eliasson show. Couldn’t manage to track it down anywhere so I’ve ordered it in but here are a few notes I jotted down, I will try elaborate more when I get hold of the text.

Sensation characterises the space we occupy- it is experienced fleetingly and is unable to be described as it was an object, which we (as subjects) relate to. This ‘mood’ or ‘atmosphere’ of sensation unifies what in philosophy has traditionally been separated into objects and subjects.

The Cartesian construction of perception aimed to give the subject an objective understanding of what they see while Merleau Ponty suggested this process also objectifies the subject as mind & body and hence ignores the capability to perceive through sensing. So Ponty focuses on the situation of perceiving or rather the impact our bodily position within the world has on our reception of the visual.

‘Being’ – Descartes (mind/body dualism) ‘Circumstance’ – Ponty (direct experience)?

The separation of perception as either representation of an objective world (Cartesian) or as dependant on something subjective (Ponty) causes the significance of sensation to be eluded. Rather there is a need to work with syntax itself, work directly with the meeting of these dualisms ie. The field where object and subject are tied together and separated.

Deleuze & Guattari in What is Philosophy? (1991) explore this point of coincidence suggesting that art is not an object perceived by a subject but captures the meeting between sensing and sensed; ‘sensing’ being the experience of, ‘sensed’ the framing of. Hence a work is not process or (re)presentation, perception or reception, it is the meeting of these dualisms.

need to consider

paradox of appearance

appearing as a process

becoming

visibility & (invisibility)

sensing & sensed

reflexivity and the myth of Narcissus

Video, the Reflexive Medium, Yvonne Spielman (Cambridge; MIT Press, 2008)

Broadcast functions reflexively as a mirror, serving as the artists self reflection, but also enables them to monitor their own image.

Removes the separation of image & representation.

In the medium this reflection is only simulated, using a video camera in the place of a mirror, does not return an image- rather broadcasts a presence.

Looped feedback- circular structure in recursiveness.

Reinforce through repetition the presentation of own self image with a sort of closed circuit, extended or repeated image.

Self reflexive (specific to medium) - self referential (narcissistic)

Marshal McLuhans retelling the Myth of Narcissus who mistook the reflection of self for another person. The extension of himself within the reflection numbered his perceptions until he became a servomechanism of his own extended/repeated image; he had adapted to himself and had become a closed system.

apparatus, self-reflexion & performance

feedback loop

performing?

is the video (camera ) making me act or am I acting for the video?

Documentation for myself (awareness of self working) or presentation for an audience (merging of production & consumption)

Transparency of working process (as with thinking process unfolding in this blog)

Bergson/Deleuze

New Philosophy for New Media, Mark B.N Hansen (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2004)

perception

representation

space & time

need to consider

Shifting relationship of the articulable & the visible (ontology).

What is the role of affective, proprioceptive & tactile dimensions of experience in the constitution of space (& by extension representation)?

The inarticulable, the unrecordable, the excess of what can in inscribed and made available for repetition & representation.dicv

studio feedback II

Eliasson & the 'virtual'

Some ideas bought up in The Kaleidoscopic Eye (Mori Art Museum, 2009) catalogue essay. Ironically, for a show about perception, I could hardly read the text due to it being printed in metallic silver and upon photocopying the pages for my own reference the copies printed out almost completely blank.

'[it is] about a field of events in which nothing objective is produced, in which conditions are set to play to allow a zone of virtuality to hover at the edge of actualisation.' Jonathan Crary, (in discussing Olafur Eliasson's work.) Deleuze's philosophy of the virtual as being that which is not yet seeable, explainable or representable through existing concepts. So the virtual may not be actualised so much as to be expressed, articulated or understood by the human eye- but may begin to exist in such experiential works as Eliasson’s. There is a potential for the 'virtual' to conflate or cross over to the 'real' and hence produce a particular, unique experience for the viewer. Makes the suggestion that through such art we are able to experience not only the external world but also experience the act of sensibility itself. Thus the actualisation of the virtual must involve the emergence of an event not deducible from the conditions that proceed it. By complicating the process of perception (through disorientation or reconfiguration) artists counteract what object theory has tried to accomplish over decades and hence with such works there is a radical change in our understanding of objectivity.

I enjoy how Eliasson speaks about his work as an experiment with human awareness, the viewer being an integral part of the work as well as the subject viewing the work (both subject & object at once?). Also the mention of the making process being open as light bulbs, motors, configurations etc. for each work are not hidden but rather the working devices are left apparent to the viewer.

However, and perhaps I am being cynical to suggest, with all its potential for participation and interaction as alluded to in his writing the work itself comes across as more aesthetic than utilitarian. That said it is enormously experiential work of which I have only caught a couple of in real life. I am heading to Sydney later this month to checkout the exhibition at the MCA before it shuts so may have something more to add to this post Eliasson immersion.

need to consider

(re)cognition

'virtual' & 'reality'

conscious of the act of perception itself

question the notion of objectivity

expanded media- interface more directly with an audience

interactive performance- make art experiential in new ways.

studio feedback

seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees

In ‘Being & Circumstance’ (1985) Irwin describes phenomenal art as an extended art activity involving ‘a process of reasoning between our mediated culture (being) and our immediate presence (circumstance).’ As it seems to me ‘being’ is pre-established, the conditioned way we come to view and understand a work. ‘Being’ influences our perception of any particular ‘circumstance’, which is in turn perhaps best described as the experience itself, the unique conditions of directly seeing and engaging with a work.

- as a side note after considering these notions it become evident I need to be mindful of how I use the terms ‘viewing’ and ’seeing’. ‘Viewing’ seems to imbue more of a sense of looking in a particular way, with a particular notion already in mind. It implies an overall awareness of the act of looking, whereas ’seeing’ evokes an awareness of something from the act of looking.

Through this philosophy Irwin advocates elevating the consciousness of our visual and experiential reasoning processes (i.e. perception). ‘Being’ ‘cuts the world down to a manageable size’ using logic, reason and rationality to frame it objectively. Our ‘circumstance’ on the other hand is continually opening up perception, we see and use judgment based on the current context.

So in the reception of art we move between this ‘being’ & ‘circumstance’.

‘what appeared to be a question of object/nonobject has turned out to be a question of seeing and not seeing, of how it is we actually perceive or fail to perceive ‘things’ in their real contexts.’

initial 'nut out'

I have decided to put theory into practice and keep a blog as a form of ‘live’ journal to document my thoughts, research and process during my honours project - a re presentation of my working practice.

Alongside the practicality of being able to instantly show and record time based work maybe this blog can also act as a forum, merging process and reception allowing the conversation to extend beyond the confines of my studio.

Underpinning my study this year is an understanding of the reception of art. I am interested in exploring perceptual tendencies, that is the direct experience of perception and in particular the way in which we experience representation.

Initially I am looking at the relation between representation – (the process of a works making), and reception (how it is perceived). I’m sure this will bend and sway overtime, but I’m hoping through this journal to document and trace the lineage of my thoughts and work.