spring 2005 proposal
I. IDENTIFICATION
1.2– thesis working title
The inbetween
Between abstraction and representation
The Presence of Absence: on the making of nothing
Seeing the invisible; Seeing feeling
Abstraction of visceral sensation
II. PREAMBLE
2.1– background/point of departure
Perception and Creation: seeing the world around me while creating a world for others to experience are intrinsically codependent in my working methodology. Through simultaneously seeing and creating, my body and my mind are linked with what I experience; I experience my surroundings while creating new experiences for others. The creation process in my graduate education has involved editing moments I see, capturing instances I happen to notice, as well as constructing new moments. I edit the world around me, I frame the photograph, and I select the fragment to blow up. Then, in interacting with what I edit, I compose or construct a new scenario. The play of construction and deconstruction is a simultaneous play. At some points I am fragmenting existing conditions; at others, I am building new ones.
I am interested in what we cannot see, what is only felt. In creating an experience that makes a physical form out of an invisible sensation, an invisible state, I make something out of nothing. Whether manipulating a series of typographic studies about the unconscious sleep state, building a 3D installation about a tanning booth experience, or creating a performance about oxygen, I have utilized form to represent what does not exist visually. Likewise, by taking fragments of the outside world, I have used what does exist and created a new “thing” out of existing realities. I enjoy the exchange between the real and the unreal, and allow my work to move from abstraction to representation, and from representation back to abstraction.
2.2– premise / assumption / intellectual or philosophical underpinning
Studying the nature of abstraction through the nature of representation, will involve as Robert Irwin said, “forgetting the name of the thing one sees.” Design attempts to create an image for something that is felt, something that is imagined, something that cannot be seen or cannot be quantified. I will try to create a tangible form out of this unqualifiable / quantifiable object, and investigate modes of abstraction.
I am interested in visceral reaction based on visual perception. Through metaphor, the invisible will become visible, and the form will embody an emotional experience in the user, a visceral sensation. I will have to answer what abstraction is, and how I can function in relationship from the initial subject and the end user.
Certain assumptions come into play when undertaking these formal investigations which are based on interpreting the natural world: fragmentation of an object allows the object to be seen for the first time, every time it is viewed; changing context for form changes its emotional resonance; abstraction leads to multiple personal interpretations; observation is the middle ground between art and science.
2.3– domain / context / disciplinary territory or orientation
Painting relates to both art and life.
Neither can be made.
I try to act in that gap between the two. Rauschenberg
Through decontextualizing, a fragment of the world is taken out of its existing relationships and placed in a new context, to be seen again for the first time. This area, between art and life, can be achieved through fragments of wholes or through moments of time, either from an urban or natural context. I hope to create a new image/object/world out of existing inspiration.
III. PROPOSITION
3.1– the “IF”: proposition / supposition / hypothesis / statement
Just as architecture makes the incomprehensible comprehensible, my abstraction of the natural world hopes to evoke a visceral response from the participant. Reinterpretation from abstraction creates a visceral emotion through texture, color, and form. I am interested in representing feeling and seeing how powerful a visual metaphor can be.
The question arises, am I after emotion for the viewer? Most work elicits some kind of response from their viewer, but certain work is more “visceral” and is more of an experience than a passive reaction. It speaks to unquantifiable values, it resonates with the participant. Is the type of emotion I am after? I am after ‘experience” and obviously, Vaughan Oliver created a sensation, a visceral response due to the evocative imagery he used. But, I want abstracted images to create worlds of the imagination for their viewers. And, possibly, these abstracted, decontextualized worlds will create new contexts, new tangible interpretations. How does narrative play into this goal? How does language translate into abstracted imagery? Hopefully, I will answer some of these questions. I do think I should start off with very specific places/narratives/ content and then work through the specific to the abstract. Maybe, I should not end on the abstract, but somehow create something out of the intangible interpretation.
The levels of abstraction are a significant aspect of abstracting reality. How far away from the original image is the abstraction removed? Is the original still recognizable, and does it even matter? Again, creating work in this day and age, the artist or designer has great freedoms in reinterpreting reality. In the last one hundred years, modern art has made great strides in reviving nonrepresentational art away from the existing reality, and allowed ‘minimal’ images to be just as powerful as photorealistic ones.
3.2– general aim
We don’t see things as they are; We see things as we are. SF Exploratorium
I plan to observe and document the natural world, analyze “the invisible, the in-between,” utilize abstraction of the visible, and create experience and emotion through abstraction. I hope to utilize abstraction as a process of stripping away layers of the outside world, and noticing its details.
The nature of representation will translating the outside world into a new image/product/object. This “in-between” area—between representation and abstraction, between whole and fragment, between the visible and the invisible, between 3d and 2d, between observation and creation, between documentation and fabrication, between the natural and the man-made—will be the focus of my studies. Again, through experimentation I will create visceral “Experiences” for others. The end product will not be pure abstraction that stands on its own, but will utilize its influences from the outside world to create a new meaning for them.
3.3– objectives: intentions / goals / anticipated effects
I expect to frame my abstraction interest in a specific way. I expect to set up experiments for investigation, and to get surprising results in my formal experiments. I expect to work with photography and other physical processes, and utilize certain chance operations. I expect success to come out of failure. I expect the process to be self reflective and self generative.
The processing of my observation, the synthesizing of my edits, will be the focus of what I gather to generate new work. Sometime I might build new scenarios to document, other times I will use experimental methods (Holga photography, for example, or collage) to abstract existing, even mundane, scenarios. The Vaughan Oliver work influenced me to utlize the physical making process, and to utilize photography, painting other formal methods for creating formal projects.
Context will be an important strategy for creating a place for the form, and for deriving meaning for something than could be reinterpreted differently depending on its surroundings. The Vaughan Oliver work was dependent on the songs it was representing. It added another dimension to the music, and existed in relationship to it. I will have to have something that I am abstracting, some content that I am work off of. What is the additional element that moves the piece from form to meaning? Graphic form which has been decontextualized, and fragmented, whether through detail or through removing extraneous information an abstraction will be created out of something which once was “real, tangible.” One cannot abstract abstraction, and I feel that the content (whatever it is, it can be very simple) will spurn me onto greater lengths if I let that be the limiting factor. A thesis about abstraction would probably be prone to ambiguity and abstraction, and these fuzzy areas I will try to avoid.
IV. PLAN
4.1– methodology: process / means / strategy
It was not reason but a man-made instrument, the telescope, which actually changed the physical world view; it was not contemplation, observation, and speculation which led to new knowledge, but the active stepping in of homo faber, of making and fabricating. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
Photography is a medium for observation and documentation, as well as a method for manipulation and transformation. It is the medium through which the world is captured. While it is an art form for recording light, it can also become a playground for expression. A photograph is not an end to itself. Rather, it creates a window—a fragment of an outside reality—to be recontextualized within a new world. The reintegrated composition attempts to construct a new space of connections. Along the way, it addresses questions
of image and form, reality and fantasy, representation and abstraction, context and content.
Through abstracting and interpreting visual details, the production process of the photographic print becomes a laboratory for investigation. The natural world is observed through its abstracted details, and through moments of texture and light. How light and shadow (shadows of objects, reflections of objects) create visceral images shows the evocative power of the natural form. Studying parts of natural details—light and shadow falling on a cactus leaf or on the concrete of a freeway overpass—creates a new experience. Reinterpreting a three dimensional place through its fragments creates a surrealist view of the realistic world. The end product turns into a tool for looking at the world and a process for editing and layering the visual environment. Beauty is revealed out of weirdness, out of form, and out of the perception and reconsideration of multiple images.
The fine art print’s context involves the white mounting board and gallery wall on which it is framed. The restrictions of the frame and the boundaries of its dimensions prove limiting for viewing the print as something greater than an ends. Studying the means to an end, working on iterations of a print, and working through the photographic process as a stage for development and for exploration, all push the boundaries of the print away from photography and into a valuable learning grounds for design. Through selecting specific photographs and creating a narrative out of their formal qualities, the power of contrast and comparison constructs an evocative narrative outside of the white wall realm. A greater whole is created through the fragmentation, juxtaposition, and interaction of images. Only through thorough experimentation can the new collaged outcome be revealed. The process is both the grounds for discovery and the jumping off point into the unknown.
means
photography as documentation, chemical manipulation, alternative photographic processes spray paint, painting, collage The areas of interest which are relevant to my topic, but are not necessarily under the graphic design domain, include: studying philosophy; learning about performance art; studying critical writings about cognition, perception, and process; learning how the brain works; and studying chance operation.
ends
photography as image, book objects, prints, installation, performance
4.1– methodology: strategy
fragment–To break or separate (something) into fragments.
construct–To form by assembling or combining parts; build.
juxtapose–To place side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.
contextualize–To place in a particular context.
integrate–To make into a whole by bringing all parts together; unify
4.2– research: the nature of investigations
While being interested in time as it relates to the experience of my work, I also became interested in time as it relates to the process of creating my work. I became aware of the process of design as the process of discovery: the sense of control but lack of control, that balance between starting the experiment and not knowing the outcome. I became cognisant of the anxiety associated with realizing the experiment did not yield the expected results, that it failed, or that nothing occurred. Despite the failures, every step of the process translated to learning curve, and a thought about future processes. It became all linked together: the process, the anxiety, the success, the inspiration, the frustration, the failure and the success. One is dependent on another on a string of balancing weights, and somehow the longer the process is allowed to continue, the more possibilities are opened up in the discoveries. I really started seeing my approach to the projects, the investigation I set up for myself and the execution through a series of steps as which were linked to the outcome.
The careful balance of control and lack of control is evident through my working process. My hands start making, and they do not quite know what will come next. Yet, through the process of construction, of losing control to the physical means of production, a new image is revealed and created. Analysis and idea are of course essential to the project, but they usually result from the making. The piece results out of its environment and out of its context. It is controlled by its context but it does not have to be controlled at every step of the way. Happy accidents and chance occurrences enrich the work more than astute judgment does.
4.3– assignment(s): sample of preoject(s) or assignment(s)
Word as book– Start with some text and create a book project through found material. Through the process, keep adding new words or information to reinterpret the original project.
Excavation– using context to generate form/content
Recombination– Recombine information/prexisiting narrative in a new way through formal means
The Place as generator of abstraction– explain a place through its details
Reinterepreting text– The Poetics of Space will be a primary piece of structure/investigation as it combines philosophy and practice and is very interesting in its observation/language of description. It talks about miniature spaces, and other ways of framing the outside world. I can set up projects of observation according to the chapters, as they are very specific interpretations of a place. Rather than describing what is in front of me directly (gathering textures from an urban wall) it creates imaginary scenarios. The beautiful language of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities might also be a good text to work off of.
Inspiration from Duality– I really enjoyed Levi and Michael’s “Providence/Mars” project. It was both absurd and very creative in its generative possibilities. It was both a real place and an imaginary place. I think the dual relationship is a strong consideration for future projects.
Interpreting Place– Maybe I will gather material from a trip, a drive, and then focus my studies on that place, neighborhood, experience. Usually, I tend to gather material when I am least expecting it, and it is used for projects at a later date. I get inspired when I am not specifically looking for inspiration, and use this “random gathering process” more than planning specific putings to gather images. I am working on a book about the urban textures/graffitti walls of the San Francisco Mission district, as well as the demolition site next door to studio. Through a pop book, and a silk printed installation, respectively, I plane on utilizing “real” places to create new work. They are quite specific, and both focus on details of some form.
Interpreting Details– I will narrate a certain place and evoke the mood/character of the surroundings, and the feelings associated with inhabiting the place. This “gut-response” to a particular location will be representative of what is there utilizing pictures/textures/scraps of materials gathered. These gathered materials will not have to solely originate from the place you are describing, but should evoke its inherent characteristics/qualities. The “vocabulary of expression” will consist of texture, color, form, and imagery, etc. I will be experimenting with a variety of different image generating techniques–such as drawing, painting, collage, photocopier manipulation–which will develop greater originality and unexpected solutions.
1.2– thesis working title
The inbetween
Between abstraction and representation
The Presence of Absence: on the making of nothing
Seeing the invisible; Seeing feeling
Abstraction of visceral sensation
II. PREAMBLE
2.1– background/point of departure
Perception and Creation: seeing the world around me while creating a world for others to experience are intrinsically codependent in my working methodology. Through simultaneously seeing and creating, my body and my mind are linked with what I experience; I experience my surroundings while creating new experiences for others. The creation process in my graduate education has involved editing moments I see, capturing instances I happen to notice, as well as constructing new moments. I edit the world around me, I frame the photograph, and I select the fragment to blow up. Then, in interacting with what I edit, I compose or construct a new scenario. The play of construction and deconstruction is a simultaneous play. At some points I am fragmenting existing conditions; at others, I am building new ones.
I am interested in what we cannot see, what is only felt. In creating an experience that makes a physical form out of an invisible sensation, an invisible state, I make something out of nothing. Whether manipulating a series of typographic studies about the unconscious sleep state, building a 3D installation about a tanning booth experience, or creating a performance about oxygen, I have utilized form to represent what does not exist visually. Likewise, by taking fragments of the outside world, I have used what does exist and created a new “thing” out of existing realities. I enjoy the exchange between the real and the unreal, and allow my work to move from abstraction to representation, and from representation back to abstraction.
2.2– premise / assumption / intellectual or philosophical underpinning
Studying the nature of abstraction through the nature of representation, will involve as Robert Irwin said, “forgetting the name of the thing one sees.” Design attempts to create an image for something that is felt, something that is imagined, something that cannot be seen or cannot be quantified. I will try to create a tangible form out of this unqualifiable / quantifiable object, and investigate modes of abstraction.
I am interested in visceral reaction based on visual perception. Through metaphor, the invisible will become visible, and the form will embody an emotional experience in the user, a visceral sensation. I will have to answer what abstraction is, and how I can function in relationship from the initial subject and the end user.
Certain assumptions come into play when undertaking these formal investigations which are based on interpreting the natural world: fragmentation of an object allows the object to be seen for the first time, every time it is viewed; changing context for form changes its emotional resonance; abstraction leads to multiple personal interpretations; observation is the middle ground between art and science.
2.3– domain / context / disciplinary territory or orientation
Painting relates to both art and life.
Neither can be made.
I try to act in that gap between the two. Rauschenberg
Through decontextualizing, a fragment of the world is taken out of its existing relationships and placed in a new context, to be seen again for the first time. This area, between art and life, can be achieved through fragments of wholes or through moments of time, either from an urban or natural context. I hope to create a new image/object/world out of existing inspiration.
III. PROPOSITION
3.1– the “IF”: proposition / supposition / hypothesis / statement
Just as architecture makes the incomprehensible comprehensible, my abstraction of the natural world hopes to evoke a visceral response from the participant. Reinterpretation from abstraction creates a visceral emotion through texture, color, and form. I am interested in representing feeling and seeing how powerful a visual metaphor can be.
The question arises, am I after emotion for the viewer? Most work elicits some kind of response from their viewer, but certain work is more “visceral” and is more of an experience than a passive reaction. It speaks to unquantifiable values, it resonates with the participant. Is the type of emotion I am after? I am after ‘experience” and obviously, Vaughan Oliver created a sensation, a visceral response due to the evocative imagery he used. But, I want abstracted images to create worlds of the imagination for their viewers. And, possibly, these abstracted, decontextualized worlds will create new contexts, new tangible interpretations. How does narrative play into this goal? How does language translate into abstracted imagery? Hopefully, I will answer some of these questions. I do think I should start off with very specific places/narratives/ content and then work through the specific to the abstract. Maybe, I should not end on the abstract, but somehow create something out of the intangible interpretation.
The levels of abstraction are a significant aspect of abstracting reality. How far away from the original image is the abstraction removed? Is the original still recognizable, and does it even matter? Again, creating work in this day and age, the artist or designer has great freedoms in reinterpreting reality. In the last one hundred years, modern art has made great strides in reviving nonrepresentational art away from the existing reality, and allowed ‘minimal’ images to be just as powerful as photorealistic ones.
3.2– general aim
We don’t see things as they are; We see things as we are. SF Exploratorium
I plan to observe and document the natural world, analyze “the invisible, the in-between,” utilize abstraction of the visible, and create experience and emotion through abstraction. I hope to utilize abstraction as a process of stripping away layers of the outside world, and noticing its details.
The nature of representation will translating the outside world into a new image/product/object. This “in-between” area—between representation and abstraction, between whole and fragment, between the visible and the invisible, between 3d and 2d, between observation and creation, between documentation and fabrication, between the natural and the man-made—will be the focus of my studies. Again, through experimentation I will create visceral “Experiences” for others. The end product will not be pure abstraction that stands on its own, but will utilize its influences from the outside world to create a new meaning for them.
3.3– objectives: intentions / goals / anticipated effects
I expect to frame my abstraction interest in a specific way. I expect to set up experiments for investigation, and to get surprising results in my formal experiments. I expect to work with photography and other physical processes, and utilize certain chance operations. I expect success to come out of failure. I expect the process to be self reflective and self generative.
The processing of my observation, the synthesizing of my edits, will be the focus of what I gather to generate new work. Sometime I might build new scenarios to document, other times I will use experimental methods (Holga photography, for example, or collage) to abstract existing, even mundane, scenarios. The Vaughan Oliver work influenced me to utlize the physical making process, and to utilize photography, painting other formal methods for creating formal projects.
Context will be an important strategy for creating a place for the form, and for deriving meaning for something than could be reinterpreted differently depending on its surroundings. The Vaughan Oliver work was dependent on the songs it was representing. It added another dimension to the music, and existed in relationship to it. I will have to have something that I am abstracting, some content that I am work off of. What is the additional element that moves the piece from form to meaning? Graphic form which has been decontextualized, and fragmented, whether through detail or through removing extraneous information an abstraction will be created out of something which once was “real, tangible.” One cannot abstract abstraction, and I feel that the content (whatever it is, it can be very simple) will spurn me onto greater lengths if I let that be the limiting factor. A thesis about abstraction would probably be prone to ambiguity and abstraction, and these fuzzy areas I will try to avoid.
IV. PLAN
4.1– methodology: process / means / strategy
It was not reason but a man-made instrument, the telescope, which actually changed the physical world view; it was not contemplation, observation, and speculation which led to new knowledge, but the active stepping in of homo faber, of making and fabricating. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
Photography is a medium for observation and documentation, as well as a method for manipulation and transformation. It is the medium through which the world is captured. While it is an art form for recording light, it can also become a playground for expression. A photograph is not an end to itself. Rather, it creates a window—a fragment of an outside reality—to be recontextualized within a new world. The reintegrated composition attempts to construct a new space of connections. Along the way, it addresses questions
of image and form, reality and fantasy, representation and abstraction, context and content.
Through abstracting and interpreting visual details, the production process of the photographic print becomes a laboratory for investigation. The natural world is observed through its abstracted details, and through moments of texture and light. How light and shadow (shadows of objects, reflections of objects) create visceral images shows the evocative power of the natural form. Studying parts of natural details—light and shadow falling on a cactus leaf or on the concrete of a freeway overpass—creates a new experience. Reinterpreting a three dimensional place through its fragments creates a surrealist view of the realistic world. The end product turns into a tool for looking at the world and a process for editing and layering the visual environment. Beauty is revealed out of weirdness, out of form, and out of the perception and reconsideration of multiple images.
The fine art print’s context involves the white mounting board and gallery wall on which it is framed. The restrictions of the frame and the boundaries of its dimensions prove limiting for viewing the print as something greater than an ends. Studying the means to an end, working on iterations of a print, and working through the photographic process as a stage for development and for exploration, all push the boundaries of the print away from photography and into a valuable learning grounds for design. Through selecting specific photographs and creating a narrative out of their formal qualities, the power of contrast and comparison constructs an evocative narrative outside of the white wall realm. A greater whole is created through the fragmentation, juxtaposition, and interaction of images. Only through thorough experimentation can the new collaged outcome be revealed. The process is both the grounds for discovery and the jumping off point into the unknown.
means
photography as documentation, chemical manipulation, alternative photographic processes spray paint, painting, collage The areas of interest which are relevant to my topic, but are not necessarily under the graphic design domain, include: studying philosophy; learning about performance art; studying critical writings about cognition, perception, and process; learning how the brain works; and studying chance operation.
ends
photography as image, book objects, prints, installation, performance
4.1– methodology: strategy
fragment–To break or separate (something) into fragments.
construct–To form by assembling or combining parts; build.
juxtapose–To place side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.
contextualize–To place in a particular context.
integrate–To make into a whole by bringing all parts together; unify
4.2– research: the nature of investigations
While being interested in time as it relates to the experience of my work, I also became interested in time as it relates to the process of creating my work. I became aware of the process of design as the process of discovery: the sense of control but lack of control, that balance between starting the experiment and not knowing the outcome. I became cognisant of the anxiety associated with realizing the experiment did not yield the expected results, that it failed, or that nothing occurred. Despite the failures, every step of the process translated to learning curve, and a thought about future processes. It became all linked together: the process, the anxiety, the success, the inspiration, the frustration, the failure and the success. One is dependent on another on a string of balancing weights, and somehow the longer the process is allowed to continue, the more possibilities are opened up in the discoveries. I really started seeing my approach to the projects, the investigation I set up for myself and the execution through a series of steps as which were linked to the outcome.
The careful balance of control and lack of control is evident through my working process. My hands start making, and they do not quite know what will come next. Yet, through the process of construction, of losing control to the physical means of production, a new image is revealed and created. Analysis and idea are of course essential to the project, but they usually result from the making. The piece results out of its environment and out of its context. It is controlled by its context but it does not have to be controlled at every step of the way. Happy accidents and chance occurrences enrich the work more than astute judgment does.
4.3– assignment(s): sample of preoject(s) or assignment(s)
Word as book– Start with some text and create a book project through found material. Through the process, keep adding new words or information to reinterpret the original project.
Excavation– using context to generate form/content
Recombination– Recombine information/prexisiting narrative in a new way through formal means
The Place as generator of abstraction– explain a place through its details
Reinterepreting text– The Poetics of Space will be a primary piece of structure/investigation as it combines philosophy and practice and is very interesting in its observation/language of description. It talks about miniature spaces, and other ways of framing the outside world. I can set up projects of observation according to the chapters, as they are very specific interpretations of a place. Rather than describing what is in front of me directly (gathering textures from an urban wall) it creates imaginary scenarios. The beautiful language of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities might also be a good text to work off of.
Inspiration from Duality– I really enjoyed Levi and Michael’s “Providence/Mars” project. It was both absurd and very creative in its generative possibilities. It was both a real place and an imaginary place. I think the dual relationship is a strong consideration for future projects.
Interpreting Place– Maybe I will gather material from a trip, a drive, and then focus my studies on that place, neighborhood, experience. Usually, I tend to gather material when I am least expecting it, and it is used for projects at a later date. I get inspired when I am not specifically looking for inspiration, and use this “random gathering process” more than planning specific putings to gather images. I am working on a book about the urban textures/graffitti walls of the San Francisco Mission district, as well as the demolition site next door to studio. Through a pop book, and a silk printed installation, respectively, I plane on utilizing “real” places to create new work. They are quite specific, and both focus on details of some form.
Interpreting Details– I will narrate a certain place and evoke the mood/character of the surroundings, and the feelings associated with inhabiting the place. This “gut-response” to a particular location will be representative of what is there utilizing pictures/textures/scraps of materials gathered. These gathered materials will not have to solely originate from the place you are describing, but should evoke its inherent characteristics/qualities. The “vocabulary of expression” will consist of texture, color, form, and imagery, etc. I will be experimenting with a variety of different image generating techniques–such as drawing, painting, collage, photocopier manipulation–which will develop greater originality and unexpected solutions.
posted by agnes at 12:13 AM
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