blurred boundariesconnectionsrelationshipsintersectionsoverlapsStudying the relationship between two things is a method for studying the inbetween. Does anything exist discretely in the world? Our language and our vision are sewn with relationships—relationships between things as they exist right now, relationships between what we have seen and what we anticipate we will see next. There are some who claim that relationships between things form life itself. The unnamed territory between discrete states is the inbetween that occurs naturally in life, but is often overlooked by graphic designers. MARTIN VENEZKYWhat is the moment between observation and creation? This inbetween area—between construction and deconstruction, between revealing and concealing, between whole and fragment, between 3D and 2D, between visible and invisible, between real and unreal—will be the focus of my studies.
I am interested in this “space between,” the juxtaposition of two moments—a sunrise and its light transforming the clouds, the point where the ocean and the horizon meet, an adobe wall overlapped by a sign—to construct poetic instances. What happens when individual layers are mixed and remixed, the images becoming intertwined into new constructions? The inbetween is the space of undefined boundaries, which allow fluid connections and relationships to be established.
Last year, I became interested in representing emotive feelings through fragments of an existing reality—texture, color, and detail—and in pursing this type of image making to see what kind of realm I could construct. After reflecting upon my proposal, my interest narrowed into conveying the felt essence of a place through its isolated moments and constructing an evocative new space. Space became the goal, as most of the work I am interested in contains dimension and depth. The translation of the spatial world remains very spatial in my work; it retains a sense of the original dimensions it occupied. The work is not quite 3D and not quite 2D—it is a world of depth and dimension on a flattened page.
The goal of both the additive and the subtractive methods of form generation is to create an overall experience rather than an image on the page. Fragments of existing reality will be used to construct sensation from what exists but goes unnoticed. First, I plan to observe and document the natural and man-made world. The art of the moment—noticing a particular instance which I want to capture and transform—will create an awareness of the wonder of the world that I see for others to notice. Subsequently, I plan on investigating subtractive and additive forms of image making—fragmenting as well as layering the original materials—to play with deconstructing and constructing “the unreal.”
In the Holga camera, moments where the overlap occurs are poetic spaces. They are instances where two “real” worlds come together and combine into one to construct an unexpected “unreal” result. I am interested in this “space between,” the juxtaposition of two moments—a sunrise and its light transforming the clouds, the point where the ocean and the horizon meet, an adobe wall overlapped by a sign—to construct these poetic instances. What happens when these layers are mixed and remixed, the images becoming intertwined into new constructions? What is the space between the real and the unreal?
QUESTIONSThe questions from my last proposal which still affect my areas of interest involve the nature of form being content. Through reduction and through the peeling of representation layer by layer, decontextualized images are reinterpreted based only on their formal qualities. During this translation, several process oriented questions arise. How do subtractive and additive modes of creation differ and when is either appropriate? How can I use fragmentation as a method for taking what is in front of me and isolating and reinterpreting it? How can I push layering as an additive form of space generation to produce discoveries through secondary juxtapositions? What is about the point of intersection—of two things coming together—which captures my interest?
INSPIRATIONart of travel: express the wonder of the world I try to capture the unexplainable thing in nature that makes me feel that the world is far beyond my understanding. To understand it, I must put it into form: to find the feeling of the infinity on the horizon line or just over the next hill. GEORGIA O’KEEFE
I believe that travel is the best source for inspiration and awareness. During the past summer, I journeyed through the American Southwest and collected many fragmented memories. Looking closely at the desert, I realized that what appeared to be a vacant land was, in fact, teeming with life. This strange landscape was a wonderland of fantastic flora, fauna, and intriguing civilizations interwoven within the colorful and dramatic displays of nature. Opposing dualities created intense thresholds of experience: barren rocky landscapes juxtaposed against brilliant blue skies and ancient pueblos perched along the cliffs. I found inspiration not at the Grand Canyon, as expected, but in a wall of a pueblo highlighted by the afternoon sun cresting over the adobe. Moments which I experienced—landforms, botanical fragments, brilliant skies, vernacular ephemera— were captured on film to be then utilized in future projects. Branches of trees, shadows of cacti, sunsets over a chain link fence: all were moments of my travel which I want to reinterpret.
INFLUENCESarchitectureAn architectural education provided the foundation for my current interests and endeavors. I have been influenced by architects who create buildings that transcend visual space to touch upon the senses, and create sensation through form. I learned that tangible materials can represent intangible ideas, and that materials can construct feelings. Through the formal expression of physical walls and materials, I attempted to create a “sensational experience” for the inhabitants of the space. Whether dealing with ideas of light, sequencing of spaces, or site influences, I practiced conveying abstract concepts through tangible built forms, influencing the user’s perception of the space. Utilizing form as sensation, I tried to move the audience without speaking a word.
trance musicI am inspired by certain trance DJs who use layers of musical sequences in their songs to build up aural narratives. Techno Trance music is usually layered with numerous tunes, which are simultaneously isolated and unified. Certain songs, like DJ Tiesto’s Goureyella and Destination, have several distinct melodies which weave together throughout the song. These melodies are individual threads with their own stories and own orders which are mixing and combining together to harmonize in particular instances. They go apart or come together to build up crescendo. This crescendo and the resulting fall off are necessary components in building up the sequence. There are no words in most of these songs: only abstract rhythm is used to construct a particular sequence. The result is a very emotional reaction in the listeners of the music. The music is felt and listeners respond on an intuitive level. This felt sensation is a good metaphor for the state I am trying to achieve through distinct fragments which weave together and intersect at certain points.
Likewise, when the DJ mixes and combines two songs together, the time between two distinct songs can be the most interesting and evocative part of the sequence. As Martin Venezky notes in his monograph, “Borrowing from radio jocks, I explored the segues between tracks. The ending of every piece of music approached with uncertainty and tension, but that edge between tracks, properly handled, could be an exhilarating moment.” The poetic gap between songs is a temporarily constructed track, inspired by the intersection of two distinct melodies, different every time. The resonance between two parts is precarious and continuously shifting. They are intertwining in such a way that both can be heard, yet either can be picked out and followed. The intersection of the rhythms in these techno songs can be likened to formal explorations where two different forms are coming in and out of focus; through their mix, they are constructing a new form.
surrealists: space-time universeThe surrealist artists suspended conscious control to produce an expression of the unconscious mind. Certain artists, such as Max Ernst, worked with collage because the technique—the assembling of an artwork from fragments of pictures and texts—echoed the unconscious mind’s creation of a dream from scattered images. According to Ernst, the dream is made up of collected and random fragments that are derived from reality. Using these collected fragments, he transported the viewer from the waking world of commonsense to a surreal dream land. Free association—pairing words and images that did not necessarily go together—demanded that the viewer figure out his own response to the piece. The intersection of the images and the text—the form and its narration—allowed the viewer to draw his own conclusions. The relationship between object and subject—reality and fiction—was reinvented and reinterpreted.
As the surrealist artists made an analogy between the surreal space-time universe and the bizarre world of their dreams and fantasies, I will try to create “unreal” montages based on real places and details. To create such “automatic” work, the process of form generation will be derived from chance operations and happy accidents. Working off the computer with analog Holga photography, with paint and with ink rather than digital printout, my mind will be able to express and reflect through tangible production. Different modes of representation will depict reality differently: photography and painting will showcase alternate aspects of the place. The work can delve into illusory space, mediating the 3D world into 2D representations.
Momix and Cirque du Soleil: choreography as fantasyscapeI recently had the good fortune of seeing Momix’s Opus Cactus, which is a dance performance about the American southwest. The show displayed a powerful, poetic choreography about the desert I was so enchanted with. It exploded with a sense of the magic, danger, sensuality, quirkiness, humor and beauty that uncovered the hidden world. Drawing from the whole lexicon of arts—gymnastics, acrobatics, body surfing, pole vaulting, the aerial arts, ballet, and human puppetry—the director conjured 19 desert scenes and devised such stunning imagery that viewers would never think of the desert in the same way again. I hope to create a similar experience through the lens of graphic design: an evocative choreography of narration and sensation inspired by the land of enchantment.
Upon considering visceral dance performance, I realized that shows such as Momix and Cirque du Soleil make applicable case studies as orchestrated experiences which create fantasyscapes. This constructed world of emotion—where human bodies move to evoke imaginary places and experiences—is a sensational journey which teaches numerous lessons about embracing the poetic realm and having illusion tease reality.
METHODform explorations: intuitive and self generativeFocus not on making, but making appear that which appears by itself. Beauty silences the mind. Pay attention and let it happen. OCKERSE
Meaning comes from the process of creation and form making. The form generates the idea. My hands start making and they do not quite know what will come next. I have to be aware of what I am constructing and derive meaning from what is occurring. The making reveals my intentions, and I give form to the intuitive thoughts which only then come to the surface.
My working process involves the precarious balance between control and chaos. I am aware that the process of design is the process of discovery and that an experiment is started but the outcome is not known. Despite some failures, every step of the process translates into a learning experience which can be applied to the future projects. The anxiety, the success, the inspiration, the frustration, the failure, and the success become linked together. The longer the process is allowed to continue, the more possibilities are opened up in the unexpected discoveries. Chance occurrences enrich the work more than astute judgment does. There is a degree of planning involved: setting up the experiment, thinking of the content, knowing when to stop and change direction. Yet, most of the fortunate accidents occur when planning lets go, and intuition takes over.
fragments: restitution of wholeness from insiginificant partsNothing is less real than realism. Details are confusing. It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis, that we get at the real meaning of things.
GEORGIA O’KEEFEI am a collector and an editor of the world around me. I see the world in fragments, in parts. In these isolated moments, I divide the continuum which is playing out in front of my eyes. I translate and transcribe these isolated instances and construct new landscapes from chance juxtapositions and haphazard interactions. Deconstruction and construction are interdependent; at some points I am fragmenting existing conditions; at others, I am building new ones. Like putting together a puzzle from various smaller pieces, I build a new whole from individual parts. Fragments of the natural and vernacular landscape intersect to create a sense of place, a visceral translation and transformation of their surroundings.
Photography is one medium which captures a still from the moving reality in front of it. It frames a moment in time and captures it forever as a fragment clipped from a larger continuum whose boundaries are unknown. The photographer cuts out a portion of what he sees; the painter sees and adds to his blank canvas. That is the difference between painting and photography. The former looks and re-represents through constructing on a white canvas; the latter, captures and transforms an existing moment to reinterpret it.
layers: weaving of intersecting fragmentsLife has multiple layers of reality. We see one layer but there are others below the surface. What are the layers of things we don’t see? What do they look like? PHOENIX ART
Each captured moment is a part of a larger whole and is thus a fragment derived away from its context. Layers add dimension to fragments. When layered in space, fragments are intermixed and the added depth situates them in a new dimension of reality. The “picture planes” of views—foreground, middle ground and background—start blending and intermixing.
Boundaries are blurred. Space is constructed when these grounds are mixed and interchanged. Weaving the layers is essential through actual physical intersection: they cannot be merely placed on top of each other, such as two layers in photoshop are falsely “layered.” The actual mixing constructs a point of real influence and exchange. The Holga camera assembles such physical juxtapositions of images. The photographed images are physically combining and interchanging on the surface of the film. One fragment gives way to another fragment, and isolated moments of both come through. Spray paint layering is another method which reveals and conceals simultaneously. It constructs a top layer that obfuscates the image below, while simultaneously revealing a new layer of visual narrative. It acts as a window which frames a particular fragment.
