FInal Blog

“Big picture,” is my dad’s favorite phrase, which he can apply to any and all situations. To him, looking at things from a more omniscient point of view is best in order to be successful. I only half agree. It is important, sure, but it is the small things that shape the larger world that make things interesting. Perception refers to the process of taking in sensory input from our environment and sorting the information into pre-established files in our brains. This information is later retrieved in order to identify and interpret the world around us and form reactions to it. When I saw Jim Campbell’s work, I knew that the direction I was heading in with my final project was the right one. It combines my passion for the brain and the way it works to process information and form the knowledge we acquire over the years. However, sometimes our own senses betray us and may interpret sights in ways that are as wacky and puzzling as can be. 

Campbell’s work at the gallery we visited delves into the concept of visual perception and twists it to a new limit that leads us to question our very own minds. He explores the limits, or boundaries, of perception, emphasizing its uncertainties and consequently blurs the framework between reality and imagination to the point of abstraction. He achieves this through the manipulation of distance, time, and the resolution of images. As technology steadily advances and we struggle to keep up with the latest innovations, Campbell retreats in the opposite direction and plays the videos of crashing waves in the lowest possible resolution to distort the viewer’s perception, forming an abstraction of the original image. The abstraction is so different and such a unique experience that it does not fit within the files of our mind. It belongs in its own category, one of question and wonder, one of uncertainty, as the name of the exhibition states. By reducing the image to a series of blurry lights and shadows and progressively slowing the video, the notions of understanding are manipulated to the extent that the viewer no longer understands what he/she is looking at.   

           

I drew inspiration from surrealist artists that create worlds of confusion and wonder by taking what we know and changing it to different dimensions, offering a look into the relationship between the known and the unknown. The world seems to come to life when looked at up close, however when you take a step back and see the bigger picture, you can see that something is not quite right about the image. You are not actually looking at the image you thought. By distorting the scale I was able to create a playful, yet confusing composition that inspires a second glance to understand what is going on. I created a world within a puddle; a world that tells a story. Placed in a linear fashion, the three-piece artwork explores the battle between what is real and what is fabricated within our own imagination. On the one hand, we can mold and shape our own world, folding our lives to be what we want them to be, only to have to face the conflicting realities around us. The subtle aggression that the soldiers convey hint that something is not right about this world. The viewer is placed from the perspective of the aggressor, keeping their guard up, but is that really where we want to be? I overcame the struggle of perfectionism by being free when approaching the background and the reflections on the water; my work explores the concept of perception not by movement but by the distortion and play of scale. My final project allowed me to play with ideas of perception, to explore my excitement for interpretation and confusion through subtleties and scale.