Distorting my reality...

In an attempt to alter perception, I decided to experiment by using an implement that would distort my surroundings through the use of photography. I wanted to recreate a kaleidoscope effect without directly using an electronic device to create that and opted to borrow a reflective stone from one of my peers which enabled me to see through the stone as well as capture the reflections of my surroundings which is in turn my reality. The pictures were interesting and allow me so see certain aspects of my college classroom but others are completely distorted allowing little to no recognition. This idea is something I'd like to take further by photographing my reality such as every day actions and occurrences and placing them into an apps which are available on most app stores which allows any picture to be merged into a kaleidoscopic composition. The images within the composition would be familiar to me because they are my reality and surroundings but due to their rearrangement, this will allow for the effects of defamiliarization to be obtained.

Picture of the Stone used to create the photographs:

And the pictures that followed...

 

As you can see, each one varies from the last and something new is achieved every time which illustrates that the stone did achieve a kaleidoscopic effect and created interesting imagery in the process.

 

I also decided to recreate kaleidoscopic images using an app on my phone which allowed me to spontaneously create the patterns and compositions that we often see when looking through a kaleidoscope before taking my own images which would then be processed into another app and filtered into a kaleidoscope appearance. The app I used to create my own images is called Kaleidoo for Android and was very easy to use with quite eye catching results.

 

 

My next steps include downloading iBooth which is the app allowing you to process your own images into a kaleidoscope filter.

 

The Kaleidoscope

Since deciding to look at altered perception within the theme of defamiliarization, I have narrowed this down by reflecting on other objects which alter our perception and have decided to focus on the object or a kaleidoscope due to the symbolical relevance it has as well as the significance of the object itself.

Kaleidoscope Perception

My aim is to reflect on the effects of defamiliarization which can be achieved through an altered perception. Instead of trying to alter the perception of the audience, I want to break the habit of only ‘recognizing’ something instead of truly ‘seeing’ it. I want to disrupt our perceptual habits and highlight the value in defamiliarization by using the metaphor of the kaleidoscope. We become habitual in our environment and by referring to the kaleidoscope; the arbitrary patterns and rotational symmetries will represent the reawakening of perception by disorganizing and recomposing what we see through a distorted sense of reality. It interrupts the natural function of the brain towards recognizing what the eyes see through the complex system of perception. By disrupting our perception through the images conveyed within the kaleidoscope and all that it conceptually stands for, our awareness towards experiencing the unfamiliar through the familiar could be achieved through the metaphorical connotations that the kaleidoscope suggests.

Kaleidoscope perception is relevant to defamiliarization as it gives us a distorted vision of reality and when we only recognise things instead of seeing, our sense of interpretation and perception becomes limited as we become habitual towards our surroundings. I want to look into the shapes and evolving nature of the kaleidoscope first and ways to create my own images and then experiment from 2D into 3D.

 

 

 

 

Moving on..

All the contemporary artists I have looked at so far demonstrate how diverse art can be in terms of an artist’s response to the same or similar theme. Each artist takes the theme of defamiliarization in an entirely different way from the last and allows a different effect or value of defamiliarization to be shown.

I now think the next stage of my project should continue in the direction of considering how the effects of defamiliarization affect our life and why it is so valuable. I feel I have enough background knowledge on the subject to be able to articulate how defamiliarization appears in literature through the use of metaphors and poetic language, but I now want to investigate further into defamiliarization in life and how it can be achieved:

·   Altering perception

·  Removal of the ‘habitual’

·   Disturbing the pattern of recognition

·  Presenting the familiar in an unfamiliar way

I think that in order to direct my project, I should begin by focusing in on one particular aspect of defamiliarization and feel that by concentrating on perception would allow me to do all points stated above, but in a more directed way. Perception can be altered by using different materials and by changing the way we engage with a certain thing or idea. Essentially, it is the fact that we automatically engage with our environment that often requires the effects of defamiliarization as all value it once had is removed when it becomes almost habitual.

Creating The Effects Of Defamiliarization By Focusing On Altered Perception…

By focusing on altering our perception, I need to understand how we almost remove the element of jumping from our first perception of something to a logical inference whereby we assume what our surroundings are rather than experience them. It appears to be difficult to remove this way of living as it is challenging to recreate the feeling of first encountering an entity or a place, as it is almost built in is to create connections in our mind and refer to previous connotations of colours, shapes and words which will trigger certain aspects of our mind which then in turn reminds us of what is before us.

 

This is evidenced in reference to Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect by Alfred North Whitehead as he suggets that our senses adjust our actions towards other elements. He explains that artists are capable of focusing on the colour of something or the shape as we are mentally inclined that way, whereas excluding the artist as an exception; this is difficult for the rest of society to do as the chain of logical inference is natural to the way we think once something has already been encountered.

 

After reflecting on a small chapter of his book, I feel that it would be too hard to remove this mentality from an audience and therefore would like to focus on the value of being able to enhance and alter perception through the symbolism of another object.

 

Defamiliarizing in the Contemporary Art World

After researching into romantic revolutionaries who displayed the effects of defamiliarization within their poetry, I decided to look into how contemporary artists have tackled this theme within their artwork and look at how diverse the outcome can be from one artist to the next.

James Partaik

I decided to look into this artist as it illustrates the very grounds of defamiliarization; taking an object to the extreme that it becomes unrecognizable and allows us to re-engage with the world around us. I feel that the artists have collaborated successfully together which directly relates to a time of passage which then suggests that as time passes by, objects lose meaning therefore resulting in the desire to reawaken our awareness of the things around us. The passage of time could be illustrated by the withered appearance of all the objects included within the piece and the re-creation of structure and what actually results in the habitual way of thinking. As stated by Partaik, the ability to see is challenged conceptually and also physically as familiarization occurs when we fail to actually acknowledge what is around us due to our perception of life itself becoming routinized. Physically the piece itself has been deconstructed so that it almost becomes unrecognizable; stimulating the defamiliarization process and encouraging us to engage with the piece and uncover what is before us. Within this installation life becomes art and art becomes life as objects that we experience within life are exhibited in a way that we spectate rather than merely encounter and reawaken the things which become ordinary in an unordinary way. Overall, I appreciate the fact this piece stimulates a multitude of reconstructions in order to construct something conceptually new as this is something which I also intend to undertake.

 

Diana Ali

This piece relates directly to my ongoing investigation for Critical Studies and mentions the Russian Philosopher Viktor Shlovsky who coined the term ‘defamiliarization’. It mentions that this allows us to re-engage with the world around us through our enhanced perception of our surroundings and through the processes that Ali uses to portray this, successfully illustrates the progression of reactions that also occurs. The key words used in the instructions such as ‘alters’, ‘changes’ and ‘adapts’ highlights the effects of defamiliarization and is then followed by another instruction with the word ‘interpreted’ as this is the consequence of the effect of defamiliarization and this altogether new interpretation results in the original response to the word being re-evaluated and re-introduced to the artists in an unfamiliar way. This could be seen as a form of ‘Chinese Whispers’ which is a game played around the world, in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. The response to the word defamiliarization could be seen as the message and through its journey around the various artists, returns as something completely different with a different identity and different associations therefore making something that was originally familiar, completely unfamiliar.

 

Dennis Lin

 

This type of sculptural installation appeals to me firstly through our inability to recognize initially what is being portrayed. The installation doesn’t necessarily take the form of a tree in any way as it has been sectioned into pieces, labeled with the numbers 1-60 which defamiliarize the tree in one sense, and is further defamiliarized through the composition of the tree pieces. The horizontally hanging pieces of tree create a fossilized appearance and completely contradicts or habitual way of thinking when it comes to our surroundings as trees are always seen vertically, and by repositioning the tree, an altogether new way of ‘seeing’ is accomplished. I feel that this further relates to the concept of defamiliarization as it allows us to see something which is extremely familiar, in a way that makes us question what it initially is that we are spectating. It reinforces the way of appreciating what is around us and that anything can be viewed as ‘art’. I feel the piece works well aesthetically as well as conceptually and requires a certain perspective which in turn allows the viewer to become part of the piece as the tree is put in an environment which evokes the natural to appear unfamiliar and consequently encourages the theory of defamiliarization. The overall placement of the piece is very striking and I particularly feel the object of focus helps to deliver the message that art is natural, it does not need to be fashioned as a type of product; a simple enhancement of composition allows us to re-enhance customary things in a provoking way.

 

 

Nike Savvas

 

This inventive installation may not directly look at the issue of defamiliarization, but it definitely encourages its effects due to Savvas’ use of bouncy balls in an unrecognizable way. It mentions that the bouncy balls are a representation of ‘the very atoms that are the fundamental structural units of all things’ which relates to the concept of defamiliarization due to its associations with perception and art. Perception is gained when our insight is challenged through re-engaging with things which were at one point familiar, in an unfamiliar way. The idea that the atom is represented through the use of a bouncy ball, two completely different things illustrates an artist’s ability to envisage something which may appear to have no depth conceptually, in a way that they can appreciate all the potential it has. The bouncy balls take on an altogether new appearance due to their floating composition, which results in a dazed appearance of colour which looks specifically at how we ‘see’ and how our perception is challenged. Savvas doesn’t describe this artwork as a sculpture, nor an installation, but more like a painting which is hard to understand at first as this doesn’t seem logical, but he creatively removes our habitual way of thinking by planting the idea that this is not what it may appear to be. It requires the spectator’s involvement through interpretation and perception and is successful in reinforcing the unfamiliar existing within the familiar. It creates an optical illusion which again relates to the issue of defamiliarization as it illustrates the effect of sight and how it can be challenged through perception and the artist’s ability to highlight two things existing side by side. On one hand, the bouncy balls appear exactly as they are, but from a distance they create a haze of colour which the bouncy balls seem unrecognizable. Two different effects from the one object, which highlights the value in everything and the opportunity to re-engage with something in a dissimilar way.

 

 

 

Damien Hirst

 

Damien Hirst continues to create sculptures which question the notions of value and does this through sculptures which can be viewed in many different ways- sometimes deliberately shocking. ‘For the Love of God’ interests me aesthetically as I am instinctively attracted to the beauty of the piece, but then the issue of death is raised soon after as the object of the piece acts as a stark reminder to the price of beauty almost. Something may seem beautiful at first glance but the diamond industry is one of the harshest which is re-emphasized through the diamond encrusted skull. He successfully takes an object which on impulse we relate to death, but morphs it into an entity which the viewer can almost forget what is before them due to the mesmerizing effects of the diamonds. The area of defamiliarization is explored through Hirst’s attitude to disguising the object itself with the diamonds, and how the skull takes an unfamiliar stance due to its glorified appearance. The piece is seen to highlight the notions of value which relates to defamiliarization as the value of everything is questioned through this effect and results us to re-encounter everything around us, and through Hirst’s sculpture, the concept of defamiliarization is successfully achieved. He also mentions that we disguise things in life to the extent that it becomes something completely different and in doing this; we fail to acknowledge what is actually around us. This again relates to the habitual way of thinking which Hirst actively disregards through this sculpture through the combination of beauty and death which would not necessarily be associated with one another.

 

Update on Studio Practice 2

Since my last post, I have researched into the English poet, painter and printmaker William Blake who effortlessly defamiliarized in his poetry yet wasn't originally appreciated during his lifetime.

It was his original outlook on art and what he deemed inspiring that caused him not to follow the mould of society and what was unquestionably accepted within the art world. He was famously inspired by visions which he claimed to see since childhood which progressed into adulthood, but to society, visions were not seen as ‘normal’ behaviour which could be the reasoning why he was not taken seriously as an artist in his time due to his associations with angelic visualizations.

The strong mythical undertones in Blake’s work resulted in a negative reaction - the audience was unable to realise the impact that the effects of defamiliarization could have upon their lives and the importance that perception has on an individual’s outlook on life and resulted in his appreciation largely occurring after his death. This then makes me question that society longs to have something different, as during his life time it was his dissimilar outlook on life that resulted in an unappreciative nature towards his work, but after his death society realised there was no one else like Blake and realised that the ability to see the potential in everything was indefinitely a great talent. Due to the fact that things become automatic in life when we encounter it more than once as the aspect of wonder is removed, could be the reasoning why defamiliarization in life is often longed for.

This effect results in a complete revaluation of something which is of no great importance, until it is viewed in another way which Blake is most famous for in his opening verse of “Auguries of Innocence.”

“To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour”.

This verse is an iconic example of the value in defamiliarization which Blake recognised, and evidently appreciated; seeing the unfamiliar in the familiar. Being able to see what necessarily is not evident at first glance creates an altogether new awareness of life itself as we are able to appreciate the value of ‘making strange’.

Since researching into William Blake and many romantic revolutionaries such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth and Charlotte Smith, I felt I should move on by researching into how the topic of defamiliarization is handled in the contemporary art scene by analysing a range of artists who tackle the theme in varying ways and methods.