CRITICAL ENQUIRY
Through my iterations, I explore how everyone perceives visuals differently based on what they know, seek, and see. I created two-dimensional geometric abstractions that appear three-dimensional by manipulating points, lines, and vantage points to create varying suggestive perspectives of depth, tension, and movement. Our brains have an automated baseline of what we have seen before. As a result, when seeing new visuals, our mind takes in what we see and connects with our memory of shapes for better comprehension and communication. This project considers how one’s perception of visuals is based on individual subjectivity and situated knowledge and how much is based on memory. What effect does biased visual perception have on us? What role does memory play in the perception of visual structures and identification?
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective
by Donna Haraway
Haraway assumes that all knowledge is fundamentally conditional and argues for a fresh understanding of objectivity. She questions traditional scientific approaches and wonders to what extent are these constructed truths subjectively positioned. She does this through the metaphor of vision – “Vision can be good for avoiding binary oppositions.” Situated knowledge allows us to make connections amongst varying points of view and recognise that all visions are partial because all knowledge comes from singular biased positions. Through my iterations, I explore how everyone perceives visuals differently based on what they seek and what they want to see. Our framed and biased perception will exist unless we decide to question it. The act of questioning and interpreting is the first step in placing ourselves in new positions. However, this does not guarantee a new perspective or vision. To create a new position, we must combine varying perceptions into one.
Haraway, D. (2014) ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective”, Feminist Studies. Maryland: Feminist Studies Inc., pp. 575-599.
Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together
by Bruno Latour
Everything can be re-created and re-visualised. Latour takes an anthropological and psychological approach to explore how visualisations help people comprehend otherwise complex experiences. He claims that visualisations are most effective when they contain specific characteristics, like perspective. Through this context, I created two-dimensional visuals that appear three-dimensional by manipulating points, lines, angles, and vantage points to create varying perspectives. Our brains have an automated baseline of what we have seen and processed before. As a result, when seeing new visuals, our mind takes in what we see and compares it to another object we’ve observed before for greater comprehension and communication.
Latour, B. (1986) ‘Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together”, Knowledge and Society Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present, Vol. 6. Greenwich: Jai Press, pp 1-40.
Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye
by Rudolf Arnheim
“Vision is not a mechanical recording of elements but the grasping of significant structural patterns.” Through this book, Arnheim argues that vision is more than what strikes the eye. He claims that what we observe connects with our “memory traces of shapes” that we merge with what we see. He applies a scientific perspective to art in connection with how we perceive the world and create art. Arnheim suggests that everyone responds to art differently based on what they have learnt through education, insights, and observations. My illustrated iterations explore how two-dimensional static patterns can be observed as three-dimensional constructs. Every individual’s perception differs based on their own “memory of shapes” and experiences each illustration with varying tensions and movements of the patterns.
Arnheim, R. (1974) Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment on Vertical Perspective
by Hito Steyerl
Hito Steyerl analyses linear and vertical perspectives connected with contemporary culture, art, and politics. She challenges the scientific objectivity of linear perspective in Western art, opposing its ‘universal claim for representation’ with the viewpoint of a freefalling body. Our current groundlessness puts us in a free-falling and chaotic state. That disturbs the traditional visualisation methods and allows us to produce multiple viewpoints and manufactured environments. The positioning of my iterations in connection with its perspectives resonates with a collection of constructed three-dimensional visuals.
Steyerl, Hito. (2011) ‘In Free Fall: A Thought Experiment on Vertical Perspective’, E-Flux Journal, April.
Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/24/67860/in-free-fall-a-thought-experiment-on-vertical-perspective/ (Accessed 26 April 2022).
Blind (Self Portrait Collection)
by Gregg Louis
Louis offers a unique take on self-portraiture, as he purposefully distorts images of himself with drawings made from memory and further “deforms” them with overlays. Some pieces are easily recognisable as human faces, while others are not as vivid; they would differ individually. He explores the boundaries between likeness and speculation and how the human brain responds to complex images that are familiar but disorienting. In this context, my iterations explore how much of one’s perception is based on existing ideas and how much is based on memory. What role does memory play in the perception of visual structures and identification?
Louis, G. (2015-18). Blind [Ink on Canvas]. Available at: https://gregglouis.com/Blinds (Accessed 3 May 2022).
Album Meta: Seven Plates 2
by Victor Vasarely
Vasarely creates a vibrant composition using rigid and fluid geometric shapes and colourful graphics. This composition produces a compelling hypnotic optical illusion of spatial depth when combined with a diverse monochromatic colour palette. The surface of the painting appears to be warping inward and outward, disappearing into space towards the edges. There are direct visual and conceptual parallels between my iterations and Vasarely’s artwork. I experimented with geometric abstraction and altered two-dimensional space to create a body of three-dimensional work through effects of depth, perspective, and movement. The three-dimensional quality of my iterations creates shape-shifting illusory forms that resemble Vasarely’s artforms.
Vasarely, V. (1976). Album Meta: Seven Plates 2 [Screenprint in colours]. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/victor-vasarely-album-meta-seven-plates-2 (Accessed 5 May 2022).