Connected: a photographically based, mixed media installation. When does sight become vision? Does the way our eyes examine a subject influence how we perceive it, or is it the other way around? Is there a beginning to this process of looking? Or is it rhizomatic in nature: able to be picked up at any moment and still understood? This work, which, in the beginning was scientific in nature, grew into a study of perception and continues to produce imagery that considers the inconsistency between the external and the internal, and between the past and the present. The inward examination of a crucial sense—vision—begins to unravel our concept of singularity, drawing attention to a kind of unconscious link connecting us all. Connected provides a discourse in sight as drawing. The installation illustrates the saccade—that brief moment of seeing that we all share with one another prior to cognition, before we color it without our own individual experiences and memories. The unconscious sketches made my our eyes, an instinctive repetition of visual tracking , produce a dispassionate image for our minds to interpret. An awareness of this instinctive process can be a way to explore the relationships among seeing, understanding and being. It is commonly thought that we all see things differently. I am suggesting that this is not the case. For a brief moment, at least, we all see the same thing. If we could all just pause and be mindful of this connection—be aware that in many cases, or egos distort our perception—perhaps the world would be a better place. |
A portion of the research that led to this current work, is shown below.
Reproduction of Alfred Yarbus’ 1967 record of eye movements while studying a picture of a girl’s face.
Prior to my knowledge of saccades, I was briefly working with family photographs--in particular the photographs that were not worthy of the family album. These soft-focused, poorly composed images seemed to come closer to capturing the true essence of the memory. My goal was to address memory and how it related to objects, specifically the photograph as an object.
Photographs are linked to memory, but how we perceive imagery--both physiologically, and psychologically was the interest. The discovery of the saccade helped the series evolve into an investigation of the sense of sight and perception: A look at both the scientific and artistic ways we understand an image, and how a subtle shift of a photographer’s attention or a viewer’s gaze can alter completely one’s understanding of an event. The physics, biology, philosophy and the psychology of vision were examined.
Photographs are linked to memory, but how we perceive imagery--both physiologically, and psychologically was the interest. The discovery of the saccade helped the series evolve into an investigation of the sense of sight and perception: A look at both the scientific and artistic ways we understand an image, and how a subtle shift of a photographer’s attention or a viewer’s gaze can alter completely one’s understanding of an event. The physics, biology, philosophy and the psychology of vision were examined.
I began making saccadic sketches of personal photographs that held a specific memory to me. I would shoot video of subjects viewing these photographs and then sketch their eye movements as they viewed them. My goal was to speak to a collective memory. This was an impossible feat, but what I did discover is that while the photo will not evoke the same feeling in everyone, each person will see the same thing.
As my research evolved, it became less about memory, and more about the present moment. As a photographer, I rarely reside there. I began thinking about what viewers expect to see when they go to a gallery, and how those expectations affect their perception of the work. I wanted to make a saccade of the space where this work would be shown-- to document how people’s eyes moved around a space that is empty. I photographed the space to capture the shadows that fall on the corners, the cracks and blemishes that have accumulated over the years, and the walls themselves. Utilizing a shallow depth of field, and focusing on a non-existent subject, I achieved soft-focused, ambiguous images. |
Conceptually speaking, the photographs can no longer be justified in this work. They are merely representations of a space that already exists. Why do I even need them? I don't.
The nine squares of space (above) moved me in a new direction for this concept-- I used projection; no object, just light falling into the space. The minimalist approach seemed right for this concept. How much can be given over to ambiance and chance?
Because I am photographer, the concept of thinking about something other than the object is a difficult one. I was already attempting to analyze the photograph as an object, but now I am not even going to use the photograph?
The experience calls into question the artist’s intent. There is only movement of the eyes, reinforced and illustrated by the string, like a drawing through which one can walk.
As viewers travel through the space, they are forced immediately to be aware of the saccadic string drawing. They are careful not to step into it, but they wonder why it is there. They stop. The movement of the eyes is again the focus. The installation makes the eye’s invisible activity suddenly visible. The video piece, alone, is meditative in its own right, but what is its purpose? The rectangular projection serves, visually, to reproduce our angle of view and our lines of sight, mimicking the photographic format. The subtle animation of lines makes its way through the video frames, mirroring the string in the space. The video, like the saccade, is continuously moving, suggesting that any image, like any moment, is fleeting. Respond to the mystery. All you are is Here. All you have is This. It is a produced conceptual experience that bypasses the photograph as an object and allows the viewer to identify the space as an image in that moment. If I can keep viewers connected for longer than that moment, perhaps I have heightened their awareness of experiential seeing.
The nine squares of space (above) moved me in a new direction for this concept-- I used projection; no object, just light falling into the space. The minimalist approach seemed right for this concept. How much can be given over to ambiance and chance?
Because I am photographer, the concept of thinking about something other than the object is a difficult one. I was already attempting to analyze the photograph as an object, but now I am not even going to use the photograph?
The experience calls into question the artist’s intent. There is only movement of the eyes, reinforced and illustrated by the string, like a drawing through which one can walk.
As viewers travel through the space, they are forced immediately to be aware of the saccadic string drawing. They are careful not to step into it, but they wonder why it is there. They stop. The movement of the eyes is again the focus. The installation makes the eye’s invisible activity suddenly visible. The video piece, alone, is meditative in its own right, but what is its purpose? The rectangular projection serves, visually, to reproduce our angle of view and our lines of sight, mimicking the photographic format. The subtle animation of lines makes its way through the video frames, mirroring the string in the space. The video, like the saccade, is continuously moving, suggesting that any image, like any moment, is fleeting. Respond to the mystery. All you are is Here. All you have is This. It is a produced conceptual experience that bypasses the photograph as an object and allows the viewer to identify the space as an image in that moment. If I can keep viewers connected for longer than that moment, perhaps I have heightened their awareness of experiential seeing.