After a close reading your group’s chosen inspiration cluster, write a 500-800 word reflection on the concepts that inspired you. Feel free to do some extra research into a particular topic but make sure you leave plenty of room for your own ideas to develop. In your paper you should indicate your preliminary ideas for how these concepts might translate into your individual projects. Post your reflection on your blog under the category mdcm2003. You also need to hand in a paper copy in the assignment box.
I think a large part of the groups decision to go for the second cluster was that is conceptualization seemed more graspable. Key words such as perception, presence, awareness, cognition, experience, phenomena, illusion and reflection are themes which are universal and for me had more relevance to myself. This is in terms of identity and understanding of the world’s spaces and perceptions of reality.
It is something which can be explored and fleshed out easier than the other clusters. Due to the nature of the cluster I feel it is necessary to also use myself as a subject for inspiration. How I perceive, view, reflect and understand the world comes distinctly from a cluster of experiences from my own life.
“Perception is fundamentally characterized by experiences of fragmentation, shock and dispersal.” (Jonathan Cary “Suspensions of Perception, MIT Press: Cambridge Mass., 1999″) What I feel Cary is expressing is that our perception is not immune to distortion and is not always free from manipulation. In terms of translating this to video I will explore this idea through pastiche, collage and blending of certain images which seem to have a relation to each other. Capturing the manifestation of the perception of oneself in the context around them, but also the beauty in the phenomena of reflection and memory.
Understanding the self and experiencing life through memories in itself I believe a phenomena. The fact that the mind captures these fragmented events stores and interprets them through complex systems and signals of our mind is tribute to the bodies own phenomenal capability. It is that which seems to distinguish ourselves from other animals. This idea is complimented by Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter (Spaces Speak, MIT Press: Cambridge Mass2007) who note that “solely through sound, an entire environment, complete with memories and emotions, comes alive.”
Another way which I would like to explore the cluster is through the use of illusion and reflections of mirrors can be found at the link below
at this link you will learn about the invention of mirrors their function whereby its inception introduce major changes to the way we looked at the world and “by reflecting yourself it transformed your relationships. I would like to use this and envisage the use of large small square circular and miniscule mirrors to reflect the individual and how it impacts on our appreciation of the self. It draws us into a narcissistic vainness where attempt to alter the way we look till we are happy with the reflection. I think narcissism will be an underlying theme to perception in my video explorations.
I like the idea how mirrors allow us to perceive reality in a different way which is more 3rd person but ironically more real. The dimensions and alternate angles that the reflections of mirrors have can provide insight to the world which are more real than our own vision; Perhaps this is an idea which I can relate to Cary who says “Perception is primarily a way of indicating a subject definable in terms of more than the single-sense modality of sight,” which links to my earlier expressed ideas.
I intend my sequence to be a series of illusions of individuals, fascinated to the point of narcissism. I will include a combinational series of illusionary reflections where mirrors are acting as a third eye shifting our perspective to something with more depth and extending your eyesight. The mirror allows you a perspective which the ordinary eye does not allow particularly with light as well as is explored in the youtube link above.
Other visualizations of the cluster I’d like to explore how japanese horror films such as Ringu (1998 Hideo Nakata). In these types of films we notice how there is a great shift in terms of concepts of the self. I also feel its with mirrors and reflections we become beings of introspection (Which is traced to the renaissance period in classical art- see link above). With mirrors it is suggested that we see ourselves as separate to the other people around us, “A rise of individualism.”
Another idea I plan if I get time is to explore the different notions of perception traced to different cultures. I’d like to portray western individualism as brought by the reflection of a mirror whereas Eastern cultures place importance on functionality using mirrors not to look at oneself but rather gaze to one’s soul…
how did you manage to put so many youtube clips on your wordpress? i hate myself. i fail as a woman who doesn’t rely on people.