ADAD 9406 CREATIVE EXPERIMENTATION ANNE LEVITCH 2
after doing a brain dump onto a mind map, i was aware that i was more interested in the metaphorical meaning of the word rather than the physical, however, they were definitely all inter-related….
i became interested in the dividing line between the two realms…upper and lower….what in fact divided them…was it just one finished and the next started….or was there a physical barrier……?
how did one get to the ‘underground’….via stairs, meditation, trance, tunnelling, thought alone…
was it a membrane, or just nothing in between…..? was it permeable….osmotic…?
if the collective conscious was there below us bubbling up into our psyche…where was it ?….how could i find it….locate it….identify it…..travel in the underground…..
could i make a map with all the markings i found on the pavement just like the London Underground?
like Grayson Perry’s mind map of an englishman….!
how does one access the underground…….the psychic / collected / collective unconscious
is there a wall, a floor, or an access hatch ……..?
are these psychic signposts??????
do i put import in the sign i saw at my random location?
was the sign actually a sign….A SERENDIPITY….a springboard…..a turning point?????
ok…exploring as potential problem of perception then, maybe more helpful….
another mind map…
orange circles represent conceptual possibilities for creating an artwork to experiment with this….
lots of wonderful philosophers that i could keep researching too who wrote around perception and phenomenology….love this stuff……..
can my senses assist me in the exploration….if so which ones….are the 5 usual ones enough, or do i need to develop extra-sensory perception….ESP, to get to this type of underground….?
Wise words above by Merleau-Ponty from ‘Visible Invisible’…… re ‘perceptual faith’….
does this blind me to a way through the membrane……into the underground….?
do i experiment with reflection, inversion, reversion, obversion or even conversion …….?
when i thought of reflection, i just thought of Narcissus and how his love for his reflection created a ‘closed system’…..an impermeability of sorts……interesting….keep this ticking in the back of my mind!
i like the fact that his name comes from the latin narcosis, meaning NUMBNESS….
a side shoot thought here….. does a boundary keep something in or out????????
so many questions…..not a lot of answers….just more questions….!!!!!!!
thinking too about all the artists who have worked on avenues around these issues. some that have triggered interesting connections for me are:
bruce naumann checking out the obverse / converse / in his contraposto experiment…..like it.
more research later, as time is pressing to get this experiment further down the track, so have to stop exploring the rabbit hole of this one, but enough to know that i am not alone out there / in here…
in the meantime, i had another offshoot thought about shamanism….and the tools they used to get through the ‘portal’ of consciousness:
could this help in my experimentation….?…..i’ve been ‘thinking’ exhaustively but not sure if i’m ‘there’ yet…..left my drum at home, damn….and my bad hip won’t let me dance as much as i used to…that leaves drugs….mmmmm……none at hand!!!….maybe sleeplessness will be the substitute for that one…too much to think about and experiment with, so only 3 hours sleep…a transitional state it makes…..
ok….let me come back to the membrane…..i need to check some out……..
perhaps i could make a gelatin platform that would dissolve in fluid……?
or use a filmic membrane….obviously not soluble though…..but play and see where it goes.
so i got my hands on a roll of mylar film….a reflective membrane (a membrane that thinks…I like that aspect of the above description, as reflection is a considered response isn’t it…)
what if a make a reflective environment including the ‘floor’….will that take me anywhere
so…i made a booth and did a mylar film mirrored walls and floor as well….was a bit rough, and not stretched taught but i really liked the deflection, and the wrinkles…(especially as i tripped on the film in process of erecting one of the sheets)
a single sided booth for experimentation
a three sided booth for experimentation
a floor panel to experiment on….
reverse reflection
video
floor reflector….inversion
I realised that while I was looking for a definitive endpoint…an elegant solution to communicating ‘underground’ through a work of art, but what I found was the many ways i could explore the journey into my metaphorical underground through playing / experimenting with a fine reflective membrane of 50 micrometres in thickness (50um) / 2mil) that allowed me a reflexive aesthetic response.
I’ve used my eyes and my breath, and while setting it up for reflection, I realised and remembered that i could see through it…if i got up close, i could see beyond my own reflection into the world behind the film…a place Narcissus never reached.
Experimenting with the mylar film allowed me to:
- make it shimmer the vision of reality it reflected
- look down through the floor as it were
- look at distorted versions of myself
- realise that it was in fact potentially a visually permeable membrane
- experience myself surrounded by reflection…multiple me
I found out more by experimenting than planning something out from the beginning.
I don’t have a finessed solution / finished product from the experiment, but i do have many avenues to continue exploring.
I also have a range of potential works of art as follows:
- an interactive installation with 4 aspects / stations.
- 2 potential video works
- potential of a series of still photographs
I realised that perhaps i was really trying to find my way into ‘my’ metaphorical ‘underground’….and i found a portal, a metaphorical access hatch.
POSTSCRIPT: During the 3 hours i slept, i woke shortly after falling into a deep sleep due to a very powerful dream where a ghoulish figure like Bruce Spence on acid came up close to my face and spat at me, hurtling rotted teeth, spittle and puss….i woke with a start, then closed my eyes and saw a deep shadow very close. I realised that perhaps i had found a way into the underground, and would need to be careful there…..but i wasn’t frightened….i would just need to close the door when i left.
