Kelly

Manifesto

The following points I have derived from WONDERLAND – A MANIFESTO FOR 21ST CENTURY IMMERSIVE WORKS by MELINDA RACKHAM. I feel they are extremely relevant to what I am personally trying to achieve.

1. SIMPLE, STRONG, SUBTLE.
2. SEDUCTION OVERCOMES CONTROL.
3. PLAY IS PLEASURE.
4. CONTEMPLATE DON’T MANIPULATE.
5. ABSTRACTION AMPLIFIES MINIMALISM.
6. FEEL NOW, THINK LATER.
7. NOTHINGNESS ENHANCES EMPTINESS.

In Phase 1 I spoke of passing through the darkness of a haunted house and how its lack of visual stimulus intensifies other senses. Now, rather than using lack of sight I intend to create confusion of the visual, aided by non-complimentary sounds/music, in an attempt to create a feeling of uneasiness. Sound instills either the creation or amplification of movement and touch and the fear of being touched. It’s also common to believe that you can see things within this space that do not exist. It is the combinations of senses that suggest the most logical scenario and have you assume that you see someone pass behind you or run before you. Hopefully the lack of conformity to senses generally known to co-exist will evoke stress possibly also through a tactile sense instead of purely visual stimulus.

To achieve this I believe I will need to produce an installation, possibly a screen-based installation that looks at the idea of panic. An environment rather that a static image. I don’t want to simply create intuitive recognition of aesthetic quality but a paradigm, the inability to recognize truth and the want to fabricate an explanation. This ‘panic’ or ‘confusion’ may be about a many number of issues. The work may reflect the contemporary state of anxiety that occurs as new technologies, the inability to distinguish true from false, apprehension towards unfamiliarity etc.

Through this ‘confusion’ I have played with the idea of attempting to imbue various emotions such as the enhanced capacity to love the lost and vulnerable. These emotions may further increase confusion as the viewer will be unaware as to why they are feeling such towards an unfamiliar figure. Obviously the emotions instilled will vary according to the images I chose to depict. These figures will most probably be once familiar images now plagued by distortion, hyperbole, exaggeration.

The other possibility along the same lines would be to use optical illusions again aided by music (non complementary) to confuse the viewer. This in turn would once again create unease however rather than evoking empathy it would hopefully instill apprehension through an anxiety of a different form. This may be fascination, claustrophobia etc.

I intend to look further into the works of Anne-Sarah Le Meur, Patricia Piccinini, Damien Hirst etc. Also optical illusions, empathy and possibly claustrophobia.

For full version please see http://digress-from-refuge.blogspot.com/