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.