See Through

SEE THRU EXHIBITION RECEPTION 11.13.10 at The ICON LOS ANGELES

2010-11-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

Shana Mabari and Professor Shinsuke Shimojo Collaboration at the ICON L.A.

Nostalgia
Shinsuke Shimojo & Shana Mabari

61”H x 10.5”W x 16.5”D, Mixed media (wood, brushed aluminum, goggles, flash bulb, battery).

Description:

Where does memory exist? In the mind, the brain, or the world? We do not have a definite answer, but it should exist somewhere in our reality because otherwise, how could we sometimes be smiling or crying over a very personal mnemonic image which is years or even decades old? Memory is often tightly connected with emotional experience, as demonstrated in special phenomena such as “flash-bulb memory” phenomenon. Emotion helps to consolidate memory as well as to trigger and distort. This installation aims to “replay” such long-term dynamics of memory distortion, fading and reviving, within a frame of several seconds in flash-initiated afterimage.

Installation of Artwork by Shana Mabari and Professor Shinsuke Shimojo from the

Collaboration with Los Angeles Art Association, Gallery 825, The ICON L.A.

Exhibition at The ICON L.A.

Collaboration project by Elizabeth Tobias and Professor Shinsuke Shimojo

SEE THRU EXHIBITION OPENS 11.13.10 at The ICON LOS ANGELES

2010-10-28T03:26:00.000-07:00

Two of the thirteen photographers, Ginger and Luke Van Hook

(display at the end of the hallway at The ICON),

exhibit work in the SEE THRU Exhibition examining issues of

photography, perception, the brain, electromagnetic fields

and the intersection of art and science; making the invisible, visible.

Watch the "BRAIN" video by clicking on the link below. Photo by Ginger Van Hook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CA98WhQLZc

Installation by A.M.Rousseau at the ICON LA.

SEE THRU EXHIBITION and

CATALOG RELEASE EVENT
at
The ICON LA!

Los Angeles Art Association, California Institute of Technology and ICON LA are pleased to announce SEE THRU Opening Reception and Catalog Release Event at the ICON LA on Saturday November 13 from 6:00-9:00pm. Building on the success at Gallery 825, this iteration of SEE THRU continues this unique investigation of photography, perception and brain science in collaboration with Professor Shinsuke Shimojo, world renowned researcher and expert in field of vision, perception and cognitive neuroscience. Through a collaborative process with Professor Shimojo, thirteen photographers explore the intersection between vision and neuroscience through the investigation of the sensory filters that form our perceptual experiences.The exhibit incorporates materials such as oil, vapor, magnetic film and power cables with light, projection, photo and video.

Participating artists are: Dori Atlantis, Ching Ching Cheng, Krista Kahl, Marcie Kaufman, Siri Kaur, Yoichi Kawamura , Shana Mabari, Meg Madison, Mei Xian Qiu, A.M. Rousseau, Ginger And Luke Van Hook. In his essay for this exhibit, Professor Shimojo says: "I am driven by my obsession with psycho physics, visual science, cognitive neuroscience, and sensory development. My education, research and exhibition work is inextricably linked to my long relationship with experimental psychology within the academic and public arena. What I find most intriguing about (human) perceptual experience is that what is visible is the result of a hidden, invisible process utilizing physical and physiological optics, subconscious and physiological mechanisms, associations to memory, emotion and action, just to name a few. Thus in short, the brain "knows" much more than what you "see," and as a result, you see much more than what the retina is able to process. By the same token, perception sometimes goes against conscious expectation."

Shinsuke Shimojo has received his bachelor's and master's degrees from University of Tokyo, and Ph.D. from MIT. He is an expert in visual perception, sensory integration and development, decision making, and neural mechanisms underlying these functions. He has published more than 130 papers in professional scientific journals including "Nature" and "Science." He is also well known for his out-reaching activity, science museum exhibitions, and collaborations with artists. He is currently Gertrude Baltimore Professor of Experimental Psychology, in Biology / Computation and Neural Systems at California Institute of Technology.This exhibit is sponsored by the California Institute of Technology Classroom Connection (CCC) Program, with generous fund ing provided by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). The SEE THRU exhibit continues at The ICON Gallery through December 17, 2010.
What: Reception/Catalog Release Event

Admission: Free

Where: ICON LA, 5450 Wilshire BoulevardLos Angeles, CA 90069

When: Saturday, November 13, 6 to 9p (runs through December 17)
About: Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide opportunities, resources, services and exhibition venues for emerging Los Angeles artists of all media. LAAA began as a civic art institution in the 1920s, connecting elite art interests to Hollywood collectors, emerging after World War II as the center of Los Angeles modernism and finally becoming the city's nexus for emerging artists of all media. LAAA serves as a dynamic force for contemporary ideas, outreach, and community. Gallery 825 and Los Angeles Art Association are located in the heart of La Cienega Boulevard's Restaurant Row at 825 North La Cienega Bl., Los Angeles, CA 90069. Gallery hours are 10am - 5pm, Tuesday - Saturday or by appointment. Please call 310.652.8272 or visit www.laaa.org.

The following photographs depict some of the helpful managers and staff at the ICON LA
5450 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, California.
Khodr Cherri, Ken Thomas, Brian Toro, Paul Batoon, Terry Newgard

Heather Rasmussen, The ICON LA

SEE THRU EXHIBITION OPENED 8.14.10 GALLERY 825 LOS ANGELES

2010-08-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

Professor Shinsuke Shimojo of CalTech,

a world-renowned researcher and expert in field of vision,

perception and cognitive neuroscience inspired artists from LAAA/Gallery 825

to create new work reflecting scientific principals

exploring the intersection between photography, neuroscience and the arts.

Ann Marie Rousseau photographs Romann Weber for "Science and Surveillance"

Photo by Ginger Van Hook

SMALL GALLERY and MAIN GALLERY

Science and Surveillance

A.M.Rousseau

Description:

The work in this project plays off Shinsuke Shimojo’s studies on perception and the interplay of emotion, decision-making and consciousness.* Our eyes are constantly scanning our surroundings in rapid leaps, instantaneously accumulating information as they move several times per second, all without conscious effort or knowledge. Shimojo describes the “gaze cascade effect,” in which a subject's gaze between two objects under consideration gradually shifts to favor the object ultimately chosen. Research has indicated that these gaze cascades, also called orienting, are deeply involved in higher-level brain functions such as decision making.

In experiments asking subjects to compare two faces and label one as either attractive or unattractive, Shimojo discovered that the more that someone looks at a particular face, the more he or she wants to look at it, and consequently the more likely it becomes that the face will be labeled as “attractive.” This happens even before the viewer makes a conscious decision. His research also found that the participants' judgments of attractiveness versus unattractiveness could be manipulated by limiting the length of time they were allowed to look at a particular face. According to Shimojo, the unconscious, spontaneous movements of the eyes work in concert and affect what are presumed to be more deliberate cognitive tasks when making choices.

Various studies in cognitive and neuro sciences have demonstrated that images—of a face, for instance—and semantic contents such as verbal labels interact through various mechanisms in order to produce a stable and consistent interpretation of the image. In today’s modern surveillance society, labeling occurs in myriad ways, both benign and nefarious. This continual labeling has far broader scope and more serious consequences than ordinary judgments of "attractive" and "unattractive," but it is perhaps influenced by some of the same subliminal forces shown in Shimojo’s work.

The lineup of "perpetrators" in this installation shows faces with labels quite contrary to the presumed task of security surveillance, which aims to identify malefactors, terrorists, criminals, dangerous subjects and other potential wrongdoers. Instead these labels, which have been loosely extrapolated from the Buddhist tenets of the ten perfections, seek to discern those with traits most useful, beneficial, lasting and constructive for society. Although these labels are essentially positive, the viewer cannot help but approach them with a consciousness of what it is to be watched and labeled specifically, and an appreciation of the complex tensions inherent in labeling in general.

•“Gaze bias both reflects and influences preference,” Shinsuke Shimojo, Claudiu Simion, Eiko Shimojo, & Christian Scheier, Nature Neuroscience, Advance online publication, 9 November 2003; doi:10.1038/nn1150

Romann Weber

Marcie Kaufmann

Ginger Van Hook

Elizabeth Tobias

Krista Kahl

Mei Xian Qiu

Meg Madison

Siri Kaur

Ching Ching Cheng

Shana Mabari

Krista Kahl and Ann Marie Rousseau

Krista Kahl, Mei Xian Qiu and Ann Marie Rousseau

Krista Kahl and Ginger Van Hook during the installation

of Connection 1 and Connection 2. Photo by Ann Marie Rousseau

ASSEMBLE

Dori Atlantis, Ching-Ching Cheng, Meg Madison and Mei Xian Qiu

6' x 17' x 13' Digital Photographs, Plexiglass, Monofilament

Photo by Ann Marie Rousseau

Color Space

Ching-Ching Cheng

9"x9"x9" Urethane, Pigment Photo by Ann Marie Rousseau

Blue Volumetric

Yoichi Kawamura, Shana Mabari and Shinsuke Shimojo

42” x 42” x 42” Plexiglass Cube + Mixed Materials

Photo by Ann Marie Rousseau

Color Space

Ching-Ching Cheng

9"x9"x9" Urethane, Pigment

Photo by Ginger Van Hook

Blue Volumetric

Yoichi Kawamura, Shana Mabari and Shinsuke Shimojo

42” x 42” x 42” Plexiglass Cube + Mixed Materials (Photo by Ginger Van Hook)

Optic Chasm

Mei Xian Qiu

Dimensions Varied – Plexiglass Cube, Water,

Used Motor Oil, Projector, Tempera.

(Photo by Ginger Van Hook)

Luke Van Hook installs the "BRAIN" 8.14.10 Photo by Ginger Van Hook

The "Brain" by Luke Van Hook. Photo by Ginger Van Hook

GALLERY WINDOW

Connections 1, Connections 2

Krista Kahl

48”x 60" silver gelatin prints with india ink.

Price: $3200 ea.

Magnetic vinyl "Neurons" approx. 8x10" $40 each. (16 total) Can be purchased individually or in sets.

Description:

Our urban environment is a by-product of our brains, our perceptions and ultimately our imagination. In this installation I share a glimpse of how I interpret the inner and outer connections of our brain to our environment, from micro to macro. Having an avid interest in astronomy, electricity and the inner workings of the mind I found it interesting how they are all intertwined. This idea began while I was driving around the city and trying to photograph the sky. I couldn't help but notice how the wires always seemed to get in the way. I started to obsess about them. The more I looked, the more I saw, until finally, instead of fighting to get rid of them I decided to include them in my photographs. I began to contemplate what exactly was going through all those wires.... visually, they are just black lines. But inside, it was obvious there was a whole other invisible world going on - a secret little communicative world of energy, electricity, sound and life. I realized this world was parallel to the inner workings of our brain, whether it is electrical impulses being transferred to our buildings and homes or electrical impulses being transferred through the neurons and synapses in our brain - it is all basically the same, depending on how you look at it.

I use black and white film and chemistry to capture the images, then draw lines extending onto the paper landscape and leave it to the viewer to imagine where these lines end. In the window, whimsical Neuron Creatures float through space; each one has it's own little life and is a part of the bigger whole.

SOUTH GALLERY

ASSEMBLE

Dori Atlantis, Ching-Ching Cheng, Meg Madison and Mei Xian Qiu

6' x 17' x 13' Digital Photographs, Plexiglass, Monofilament

Price: $4,000 total installation, photos available individually

Description:

ASSEMBLE explores the intersection of vision and perception through an installation that mimics the way congenitally blind people process information. Four artists have collaborated to dissect one photographic image into parts, fragments, slices, and pieces. The resulting installation of images attempts to simulate the way a blind person must confront all experiences, in a detailed piece-by-piece examination to understand an object, person or environment. ASSEMBLE also investigates the hierarchy of perception - by breaking apart one iconic photograph into bits and pieces leaving much of the final details to the mind of the viewer.

SMALL GALLERY

Science and Surveillance

A.M.Rousseau

Size, Medium

Price:

Description:

BACK GALLERY – WURDEMANN ROOM

Blue Volumetric

Yoichi Kawamura, Shana Mabari and Shinsuke Shimojo

42” x 42” x 42” Plexiglass Cube + Mixed Materials

Price: $20,000

Description:

Throughout history, art and science have had much in common. Both disciplines tackle a subject in depth and with great curiosity. One uses methodic measures and recording of results, and the other uses internal intuitive reasoning to create artwork. ‘Blue Volumetric’ is a collaborative piece among a scientist/artist and two artists immersing themselves into the Science of Vision and using art to record that work.

The piece attempts to give color another dimension. By definition, color has three properties: hue, saturation and brightness. Even though volumetric (3D) color is everywhere in the natural environment, such as in the sky or the water, it has been neglected relative to surface (2D) color in perceptual psychology and cognitive neuroscience. This piece introduces volumetric, as well as temporal qualities to this unique “qualia”(a philosophical term for subjective quality) of the hue. Steam is enclosed to give blue light space, and at the same time, the steam is constantly changing from steam to water and back to steam. The piece is also meant to demonstrate sequential and simultaneous color contrast phenomena.

Brain Projector

Luke and Ginger Van Hook

24” x 24” x 24” Mixed Media

Price: $2500

Description:

Based on the traditional Marawa Doro Japanese Rotating Lantern, this light and space installation investigates the visual cortex as a metaphor for how the brain processes information.

Optic Chasm

Mei Xian Qiu

Dimensions Varied – Plexiglass Cube, Water, Used Motor Oil, Projector, Tempera.
Price: $ 4,200

Description:
This work is about optic illusion, the difference between what we believe is in front of us and what is actually there as a physical object. I am interested in human perception as defined by light, shadow, and belief. A thick slick of black oil from a '75 Chevy on a glowing liquid cube. A video projection that appears to move in, through, and around the cube. A serious comedy of optics, and ecological and fundamental opposites.

MAIN GALLERY

The New Zodiac

Grid of Politicians (Untitled Politician #1-6), Grid of Bunnies (Untitled Bunny #1-6)

Siri Kaur with Romann Weber and Daw-an Wu

13 x 19’’ Pigment Prints, 2010. Edition of 5.

Price: $400 each or $2000/ grid

Description:

The images were made using eye tracking software in the Shimojo laboratory at CalTech, where each image was viewed for a total of five seconds by the three collaborators. The parts of the images that are visible represent the course of the viewers’ eye movements. It’s as if their eyes became a razor, scraping out the relevant sections of each picture, charting a course of relevancy. The portions represented by the solid color and black areas reveal the portions of the pictures the viewers’ eyes neglected. Thus the images become visible maps of the way humans see the world. In five seconds or less, eyes, mouths, breasts, and flesh are what we look at first.

These cultural icons, both the politicians and pinups, were chosen by the artist for nostalgic reasons, because of their influence over her during her formative years, for better or for worse. The color palette of “Politicians”, borrowed from popular design palettes of 1960’s and 1970’s, displaces them from their typical flag backdrops; one of each color is arbitrarily assigned to each politician. The deep black ground of the “Bunnies” removes their fleshy bodies from the usual setting of sugary boudoirs.

Color Space
Ching-Ching Cheng

9"x9"x9" Urethane, Pigment
Price: $2500

Description:

Colors are inside our brain; outside is colorless because the physical environment contains only light waves. Colors that we perceive are determined not just by physical properties of light (i.e. wavelength and energy), but also physiological optics of the eye and neural processing. So any color that our eyes receive is a perception of color, as well as a psychological color. This installation aims to visualize perceptions of colors in space, which have three dimensions: color tone (first dimension), lightness (second dimension), and saturation (third dimension).

The Opposite of Love

Mei Xian Qiu

26.5 x 36.5, Lambda print, Edition of 10
Price: $850 ea.

Description:

This work explores ambiguity and intensities of emotion and intent. How do we visually perceive love, loss, and malcontent? A woman looks longingly or in anger? Two images of the same woman, different object in hand, one flowers, the other a gun. Her expression is the same, or is it?

MAIN GALLERY continued

Man,Woman and Revolver

Mei Xian Qiu and Meg Madison

10” x 28” Framed Chromagenic Print

Price: $

Description:

This exploration replaces incendiary primary imagery with words, challenging the viewer to create a complete visual context. I am interested with what is not in the frame as much as what is in it. There exists for the viewer a combination of a self created visual picture from the words, what something "should" look like, subliminally borne from memory and enculturation, in the same way we create a visual memory from reading a novel, with the remaining portion of photograph (where the visual information is readily divulged).

See Thru

Marcie Kaufman

Archival Digital Prints, 2010

Price: $600

Can you trust what you feel?

Marcie Kaufman

Archival Digital Print, 2010

Price: $450

Electric

Marcie Kaufman and Krista Kahl

Archival Digital Print, 2010

Price: $450

Crossing

Marcie Kaufman and Krista Kahl

Archival Digital Print, 2010

Price: $450

Description:

Marcie Kaufman is responding to Professor Shinsuke Shimojo's work on tactile cognition--how the brain "reads" touch on the skin. At different places and positions of the body, the brain reads touch in mirror reverse. She created photographs that make visible Shimojo's findings of invisible cognitive interpretation by drawing directly on the body, and developed poetic connections with the science behind the work.

MAIN GALLERY continued

Nostalgia
Shinsuke Shimojo & Shana Mabari

61”H x 10.5”W x 16.5”D, Mixed media (wood, brushed aluminum, goggles, flash bulb, battery).
Price: $12,000.

Description:

Brain

Luke and Ginger Van Hook

12”L x 12”W x 12” Polycarbonate, LED Diodes, batteries, mirrored plexiglass

Price: $2500.

Description:

Transparent abstract sculpture performance that mimics the human brain. During this exhibition the “Brain” Sculpture will be born, mature, fade then die. This occurs as the LED lights burn the brightest at it’s birth, then begin to decrease in illumination as it ages, and eventually ceases to shine, culminating in its final electronic death. A birth notice is prepared in a local newspaper and an obituary notice will be recorded when it ceases its life cycle. Expected life cycle = 5 days.

Ferromagnetic Fields-LIGHT and Ferromagnetic Fields-DARK

Luke and Ginger Van Hook

30” x 40” Photographic Digital C-Print, framed in Plexiglass

Price: $3000 ea.

Description:

Ferrofluid is a liquid that becomes strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field and is composed of nanoscaled particals of magnetite or hermatite or another compound containing iron. Invented in the late 1960s in NASA’S Apollo Program (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) ferrofluids are well known for their use in forming liquid seals and in electronic devices for computers, audiovisual equipment, some industrial applications and in medical and scientific research. Ferrofluids appear as a black fluid. They are prepared by dissolving nanoscale ferromagnetic particles in a solvent such as water or oil and remain strongly magnetic even in a fluid condition. Abstract shapes are created by the rising of spikes under a magnetic field that is controlled by electromagnets from below the surface. During a re-creation of this experiment, photographs reveal a battery operated red colored LED diode is swallowed up by the ferrofluids to form spiked shapes in mysterious configurations.

MAIN GALLERY continued

Electromagnetic Fields-First Steps and Electromagnetic Fields of Memory

Luke and Ginger Van Hook

22” x 42” Photography Darkroom C-Print, framed in plexiglass

33” x 42” Photography Darkroom C-Print, Collage framed in plexiglass

Price: $3000 ea

Description:

The memories in our brains are invisible to the outside observer. At best, the way we have of sharing these memories is through the medium of photography. All brain activity is based on a series of electrical impulses within a neuron, which then communicate neurochemically beyond synapses, much like our corporate culture has erected Power Towers to carry our energy and communications throughout the world. Vague perceptions, faded remembrances and filtered consciousness runs through these collages of images examining the relationship of electromagnetism to our brains, our bodies and our environment.

Streams of power lines, telephone cables, satellite transmission dishes, cell phone towers as well as electronics both inside and outside our homes run along our landscapes like the streams of consciousness run through our thoughts. Some images of memories are clear and poignant. Some images are obscured and reside in the outer edges of our consciousness; not revealing themselves yet providing the hint of a feeling one can never fully grasp like a dream that has evaporated upon wakening.

[Growing up in the late 1960’s, my sister Else and I lived in a home along Southern Blvd. and Dudlext Street in Southgate, California where rows and rows of High Voltage Power Line Towers dotted the landscape like dominos. These structures of omnipotent architectural beauty towering over our childhood, made me feel like wanting to climb up the triangular bars like the limbs of trees, but our parents warned us to stay away. These images reveal new layers of filters to my memories as we investigate the invisible powers of low-level frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF’s) and their alleged associations.]

(Ginger Van Hook, artist reflections)

Revealing the Invisible

Luke and Ginger Van Hook

15”L x 12”W x 8.5”H, Magnetic Viewing Film in glass, aluminum frame. Interactive with cell phones

Price: $600

Description:

Magnetic Viewing Film is used to show stationary or slowly-changing magnetic fields; it reveals their location and direction. It is a dark green translucent thin flexible sheet, coated with micro-capsules containing nickel flakes suspended in oil. When the “receiver” end of a cell phone is applied to the magnetic viewing film, it reveals exactly where the magnetic field is located. During this exhibition, the gallery visitor is able to interact with the art by “drawing” with their cell phones, exposing the invisible changing magnetic fields.

saturday

2010-07-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some candid photos from saturday. I have the larger files. I apologize if some of the photos aren't flattering. I like all the interactions, hope you do.

"SEE-THROUGH" Meeting at The ICON 6.26.2010

2010-07-10T04:05:00.000-07:00

Artists collaborating in the "See-Through" Exhibition workshop met with Shinsuke Shimojo on Saturday June 26th, 2010 at The ICON to discuss the progress of their proposals and listen to Professor Shimojo give a lecture on various topics such as the Troxler Effect, the Stroop Effect, the Ventriloquist Effect, Sound localization- (how audition affects vision), color theories and a discussion about "Where does transparency come from?" Professor Shimojo also discussed David Katz and showed images of work by James Turrell. Peter Mays, Director of Gallery 825/LAAA attended as well as introduced Professor Shimojo and gave encouraging remarks to the artists. Artists selected to participate include:

Dori Atlantis. Ching Ching Cheng. Marcie Kaufman. Meg Madison. Shana Mabari. Mei Xian Qiu. Krista Kahl. Siri Kaur. Yoichi Kawamura. Glynnis Reed. AnnMarie Rousseau. Elizabeth Tobias. Ginger Van Hook. Luke Van Hook

AnnMarie Rouseau describes her "Surveillance Gone Wild Project"

Photos by Ginger Van Hook

Yoichi Kawamura asks a question about implicit vs. explicit brain functions.

Photos by Ginger Van Hook

Elizabeth Tobias and Shana Mabari take copious notes while Krista Kahl listens intently.

Photos by Ginger Van Hook

Luke Van Hook, Mei Xian Qiu, Yoichi Kawamura,

Ching Ching Cheng, Glynnis Reed and AnnMarie Rousseau

contemplate the brain's functions while Professor Shimojo explains.

Photo by Ginger Van Hook

Hosting the meeting on Saturday morning, members of the Fine Art Production Team for The ICON in Los Angeles gave a tour of the photographic lab, studios and gallery and discussed ways the artists/photographers in the group could consult with the fine art team in order to obtain the finest quality images and prints for their upcoming show. The ICON Customer Service Team was identified as Ken Thomas, Khodr Cherri and Heather Rasmussen. The ICON Fine Art Production Team was identified as Brian Toro, print production coordinator, Paul Batoon, Master printer and Terry Newgard, retoucher and print specialist. The ICON is located at 5450 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, California 90036 (323-933-1666) The ICON is a collaborator for the Cal Tech Brain Art Project with Cal Tech and Gallery 825/LAAA.

Exhibition Dates: LAAA/Gallery 825 - Saturday, August 14, 2010 6-9pm 

ICON LA - November 13 – December 17, 2010

Los Angeles Art Association, The California Institute of Technology, and The ICON LA are proud to present SEE-THROUGH, a collaborative workshop and exhibit exploring the intersection between photography and neuroscience through the investigation of sensory filters, such as vision, audition and touch, that form our perceptual experiences. Selected participants will create new and experimental photographic works based on insights gained through a collaborative process with Prof. Shinsuke Shimojo of Caltech, a world-renowned researcher and expert in field of vision, perception and cognitive neuroscience.  Selected participants are collaborating with other LAAA artists and

Prof. Shinsuke Shimojo from June through August 2010.

Project Status as of June 26

2010-06-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

COLLABORATIONS:

YOICHI, SHIN: The BLUE Project- what is so special about the color blue? Associations with color blue, visible rays, exploration of relationship between curvature of retina, curvature of sky and visual sensitization.

GINGER, LUKE: Making the Invisible Visible… Investigation electromagnetic fields

KRISTA, LUKE, GINGER, YOICHI: Need info re: invisible influences on the mind…

DORI, MEG, CHING, MEI: ? Need info…

SOLO PIECES:

A.M: Visual preference, surveillance gone mad, induce feeling of hyper sureveillance with cameras, signs, labels, warnings, barcodes... Large-scale photos, mug-shot style with labels.... Choosing favorite painting of “favorite shapes”

CHING: Synesthesia, perceptual relationship of color spaces or experiencing self as first person in space

GLYNNIS: Exploring boundaries of our subjective experiences, how we create experience, looking inward, outward, layering, juxtaposing images or video to have multiple perspectives in a scene, possibly using stand-in.

KRISTA: 2-D, 3-D perception, inner imagination, internal workings of brain mimicked through outer world, lines from 2-D to 3-D, possible sound element.

MEI: Target words + iconic images- perception of how we “read” “view” art, where eyes move within a frame, perception of iconic image edited and recontextualized or chemistry of different emotional states

SIRI: Solo piece, prisms, perception, how pictures make us think and read images, maybe a box or device changing orientation / splitting vision

"SEE THROUGH" meeting at Gallery 825 6.19.10

2010-06-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

SEE-THROUGH Meeting Minutes – 6/19/10 taken by Jade

Luke:

· Going forward w/ sound project

· Driving through the city, photographing power lines

o When power lines get dry, they make noise

· Project is about “making the unseen seen”

· Sound piece w/ a visual component

Ginger:

· Took a triple exposure in infrared of a power line

o Turned a flashlight on the image and took a picture of that – the light showed 3 or 4 rings à depicts magnetic field

Elizabeth à Ginger:

· Is there an element of toxicity to it?

Ginger:

· 2 elements to power:

o we need it, it’s very useful; useful in TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

o toxic – depending on how it’s used

§ Example: Dams provide electricity and/or reserve water for us; however, if a dam breaks, it’s toxic to that environment.

· Effects of electromagnetic radiation may be toxic to some, but not necessarily to all à requires further exploration

Krista:

· Book: Electric Universe

o Reading about how electricity permeates our universe, even our bodies

· Photography project – how to incorporate the duality of brain energy and the gallery…

· Everything is connect through energy fields

· In space, you can see different colors through gases

Siri:

· Like invisible networks?

Krista:

· Yes, like our brain.

Siri:

· Concerned about time constraints…

Peter:

· Today is just to hear where everyone is at. There doesn’t seem to be any collaborations as yet.

Siri:

· Loved the blog and getting to read up on everyone’s proposals

· Open to collaboration

· Would love to do an installation with light and color

· Likes the approach of this project as a way to not just make objects

· Interested in the pure color experience – something involving stimulation of the retina, rods, cones

· Idea of a sound cocoon w/ visual stimulation à whole body experience

Glynnis:

· Interested in perceptual differences between people, especially people w/ psychiatric illnesses, exploring the odd/unique

· How do we define what’s normal/abnormal in perception?

· Interested in surveillance – mentioned the NSA surveillance

Shana à Glynnis:

· Mentioned experiment on detecting abnormal behavior in the public domain

Glynnis à Shana:

· Using cameras or people?

Shana à Glynnis:

· Using people, but will research and get back

Peter à Glynnis:

· Ann-Marie mentioned interest in surveillance, so that may be a good collaboration

Glynnis:

· Yes, interested in Ann-Marie’s and Ching’s ideas

· Very interested in the investigation of notions of normal vs. abnormal

Dori:

· Really interested in visual hallucinations especially w/ people who lost their sight

o Charles Bonnet Syndrome

o Was identified around 1730 that blind people hallucinate

· Shin mentioned trying out a pair of glasses that make sounds

· Interested in braking up a main image into its different components

o Combining photos and Braille on a triangle (3-D?) and hanging from ceiling

o Pieces would be sequential but the sequence doesn’t matter

o Sort of like a puzzle – taking all the details to make the whole

Meg:

· Loved blog

· To Dori: likes idea of hanging different photos that make up a whole

Siri:

· RE ideas on surveillance: WWII Mass Ob. (observation)

o Citizens would go around recording what people did

Meg:

· Whole idea of using appropriated surveillance footage is cool

· Interested in memory deterioration and the “after image”

o Take an iconic object and photograph it in different ways to produce the after image

· Shin mentioned Frederick Bartlett

· 12 target words – photographing some of the images/symbols associated with the target words and trying to get people to think of the word

· Cameron Jamie – picture of him is passed along among several other artists to paint and each artist produces a different image (different interpretation)

Peter:

· Likes the idea of how we perceive the iconic image

Krista:

· How we perceive “comfort objects” – like iconic ones?

Meg:

· The back room could have the sound/light installation

· Middle room could have the installation w/ strings

· Installation w/ the most simple pictures of body parts and viewer would come out at the end and think “body”

Mei:

· Interested in disjunctive-ness with the image plane

· Likes the idea of making people think about their expectations when presented w/ an image à target words

o The image is an abstraction of what they see but not the actual object

Elizabeth:

· Discusses an eye-tracking experiment:

o Subject’s head is fixed and looks at a monitor in front of them which shows one image after another

o Machine tracks and records eye movements

o Shows what parts we look at first

o Eye Drawing – very difficult

Shana:

· When we look at the image of a human face we usually focus on the mouth, nose and eye areas.

· In experiment - when watching a movie sequence:

o “normal” people – follow storyline and focus on appropriate faces in emotional scenes

o people with Asperger syndrome or Autism – look elsewhere i.e. a vase even during emotional scenes

Mei:

· Interested in the chemical make-up of our synapses

· Interested in the Fortress of Solitude from Superman – light rays

Ann-Marie:

· Book: The Invisible Gorilla

· Describes experiment from book:

o 2 basketball teams – black uniforms/white uniforms. The subjects were asked to count the number of passes in the game. During the game, a person in a gorilla suit walks onto the court.

o ½ the subjects didn’t see the gorilla à intentional blindness

o Entire game was recorded – subjects who missed the gorilla didn’t believe it until they watched the video

o In terms of level of intellect/attentiveness to detail, no commonality between people who saw the gorilla – they just did

o Blindness w/ eyes wide open

o Why so many motorcyclists are hit – we don’t see them because we aren’t used to seeing them

· Meg’s proposal was about memory:

o What we think we see/know

o Memories can be changed i.e. children who have negative memories of their father because they remember their mother saying so when the reality may have been very different

Mei à Ann-Marie:

· This can happen on a mass scale i.e. memories of wars à propaganda

Ann-Marie:

· RE what Glynnis was saying about surveillance:

o Surveillance is becoming such a part of our lives

o Being watched all the time – what is the psychological effect? How does it affect our behavior?

· Has been photographing phone poles and wires around the world (China, Mexico)

o It’s incredible to see how different countries do it

o They are lines of communication that are going away

§ Technology is changing, becoming wireless

§ They’re being put underground

Ginger:

· Described construction of phone/power posts:

o Helicopters strung posts together with power lines

o Workers saw visual phenomenon – when they were close to the electromagnetic coils used to dampen the wires, they were induced by TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

Ching:

· Book: Vision & Art – The Biology of Seeing

· Interested in color and sound – different colors get different sounds

o Maybe creating a color song

o Different wavelengths of color à different lengths of notes

Shana:

· Possibly related: Matisse and contour drawing – the fewest lines needed for brain to recognize a 3D image

Elizabeth:

· There are also different temperatures and frequencies of colors

Meg:

· Likes opportunity to use the raw scientific data, rather than just creating a piece that’s inspired by it

· Even if you do it in an anecdotal way, use/represent the data

Shana à Glynnis:

· Will definitely research the surveillance stuff

Elizabeth:

· Art is the expression of human scale; Science is the expression of the micro/macro scales

Dori:

· RE the installation with the lines, invisible lines could be replicated w/ just light.

Peter:

· Use the physicality/constraints of the space to the fullest

Elizabeth à Siri:

· You can create something with the floor using color – change veiwer’s perception, feeling of gravity

· Irwin

o subtle, low-tech

o used controlled shafts of light to alter perception

Siri à Elizabeth:

· Goes back to my interest in our place in the universe

Elizabeth:

· Next meeting is next Saturday, 11:00 at Icon

Peter:

· Feel free to contact each other directly; take it upon yourselves to explore these smaller groups for collaboration

one more

2010-06-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

a few pics from sat.

2010-06-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ginger and Luke Van Hook Collaboration - Original Proposal

2010-06-18T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ginger Van Hook and Luke Van Hook Collaboration

Photographer and Painter work together to create new images.

CalTech/Gallery 825-LAAA

SEE-THROUGH- An Investigation of Photography, Perception and Brain Science

May 25, 2010

The Ghost of my Sister Else (23" x 42")

Traditional Darkroom Photography, Negative Sandwich

Artists: Ginger Van Hook, Luke Van Hook, Luis Ingels, (photographer and Dad)

Original negative image taken in 1965 by Luis Ingels,

Power lines image taken in 2010 and merged in the darkroom by

Ginger Van Hook and Luke Van Hook.

Location: SouthGate, California. Southern & Dudlext street across from SouthGate Park.

Photograph image of Original Power Towers that we lived under as a family

between 1964-1966

My work in photography investigates how to make the invisible, visible.

Electromagnetic Fields are an invisible force on our planet that is created from the generation of electricity through high voltage power lines just to cite a particular example. So too, this force exists in smaller quantities in microwave ovens, TV’s, computers and electrical appliances. At first this type of radiation was not well understood, nor how it affected the human psyche, the brain or the body. I began investigating the issue of High Voltage Power Lines at first because of its unique visual relationship to me. In 1964-1966 when my family arrived in Los Angeles from Argentina, we lived in Southgate, California and we rented an apartment about a few feet from a row of high voltage power lines. I always thought these enormous power structures were beautiful; an elegant testament to man’s ambition to conquer the night.

Later, I found new reasons to investigate the issue as I began to learn of the powerful electromagnetic fields that were associated with this technology. The issue is also personal as my sister had developed Leukemia and died in 1975, but no known cause was ever attributed to her death. When I learned of the connection between High Voltage Power Lines and childhood Leukemia I started investigating this issue with even deeper conviction, photographing Power Towers between California and up into Oregon.

The question of how electromagnetic fields affects the brain, the body and the psyche are the subject of now a lifelong study looking for my own personal answers. I seek to demonstrate to the public, the art world and to my family that an invisible force is still active, even when it cannot be seen or perceived by the human eye. Just as I had worked in the radio business for 15 years and learned sound waves were able to be captured and heard on a receiver to broadcast music, so too, I wish to explore the visual impact of electromagnetic radiation as it applies to the perception of the public mind, the brain, the body and the psyche.

I believe my work would be of particular interest to Prof. Shinsuke Shimojo of Caltech because I too seek the connections between hidden links in my photographic work. I too study the associations to my childhood memories, how the public perceives these issues and the emotional states that are a result of invisible forces in our environment.

In my work I also wish to acknowledge the collaboration with my husband and Gallery 825 --Los Angeles Art Association Member, fine arts painter, Luke Van Hook with his assistance on road trips, support with equipment and creative consultation through several states to obtain the extensive collections of Power Tower and Power Lines photographs as well as the generosity of my father, inventor, Luis Ingels for allowing me the use of our childhood negatives for me to cut up and create images of double exposed negative sandwiches resulting in powerful views of High Voltage Power Lines seen through the lens of my childhood memories. My work involves darkroom techniques with double negatives sandwiched together like the work of Jerry Uelsmann including double and triple exposures as well as digital imagery created on the computer.

I have an Masters in Fine Arts in writing and photography from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and a Bachelor’s degree in Communications/Journalism from The Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Luke Van Hook has a Bachelor's degree from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in Fine Arts Painting. The focus of Luke Van Hook's current work is the exploration of the circle in all its diverse manifestations. Luke Van Hook mixes all his own paints to create unique color combinations on canvases and panels. His work may be viewed on his website: www.lukevanhook.com

(Scientists from the Jiao Tong University School of Medicine in Shanghai announced the results of their research that finally explains just how EMF radiation causes childhood leukemia. Xiaoming Shen and his colleagues determined that the distribution of leukemia among children living under high voltage power lines or transformers is not random; rather, it affects children carrying a certain genetic variant, that is, the ability to repair DNA breaks vastly more often. This simple sounding finding has huge implications. Researchers have long thought that EMF radiation caused DNA breaks, but could not figure out how. Shena’s research points to a different mechanism; the EMF radiation doesn’t cause the breaks, but inhibits DNA repair, particularly in children that have a weakened repair mechanism to begin with.)

http://spectrum.ieee.org/techtalk/semiconductors/devices/powerlin_radiation_and_children posted by Tekla Perry//Tuesday, December 16, 2008.

Strolling Through Power Lines (39.5" x 25.5")

Traditional Darkroom Photography, Negative Sandwich, Triple Exposures

Artists: Ginger Van Hook, Luke Van Hook and Luis Ingels, photographer (and Dad)

Bridge Over Troubled Power (A Tiny Voice From the Grave) (27" x 41")

Traditional Darkroom Photography, Negative Sandwich

Artists: Ginger Van Hook, Luke Van Hook, Luis Ingels photographer (and Dad)

Exposed to Power (22" x 40")

Traditional Darkroom Photography, Negative Sandwich

Artists: Ginger Van Hook, Luke Van Hook, Luis Ingels, photographer (and Dad)

In the original image taken in 1965, there is my mother Martha Ingels, my father Luis Ingels,

and my middle sister Else Ingels depicting the family celebrating Else's first birthday.

Else was born in 1964 and died of Leukemia in 1975.

Southgate, California. Southern & Dudlext streets, across from SouthGate Park.1965.

The images of powerlines in the background are taken in Los Angeles, California

over the downtown freeways in 2003 and this final image was created in the darkroom using two negatives in April 2010.

Distempered Statement

2010-06-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Tobias

Distempered

These images emerge by fusing and layering fragments of my brain signals into saturated photo panels that evoke the title of the series- distempered. Arising from my contemplation of the delicate and all too fragile balance of the mind, the traces of wave signals spill downward in broad strokes, uncontrolled yet precise, expressing the contrast between worldly and unconscious instincts. Each image was blended purposefully rendering raw thought pulsations into inimitable objects.

Voltage frequencies and electrical currents are intrinsically vibrant and here they are employed within the larger context of perceptual psychology and neuroscience. The prints simultaneously engage the viewer in observing color fields while exposing my mind engaged in the same activity, creating a visual feedback loop between the audience and myself. Moreover, viewing the images for a sustained period of time modifies photoreceptors, which can induce an afterimage effect.

Elizabeth Tobias- The Distempered Series

2010-06-17T13:50:00.000-07:00

images from krista's proposal and stuff

2010-06-17T10:26:00.001-07:00

2010-06-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Krista's proposal

2010-06-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is my original proposal for the show - thanks for all patience, I was out of town 'til last night. I would appreciate any comments. I will also now read through all blog posts from everyone - so exciting! :o)

I propose a photographic exhibit/installation using black and white photographs of environmental telephone and electrical wires. This is a project I’ve been creating for 2 years. It will present in a fascinating context, the human brain and it’s functions in regards to the combination of our inner worlds and our external environment. Using “photo” from the word “light” and “graph” from the origin of “write” I want to show the effective possibilities of our vision both physically and imagined. Where does our vision actually begin and end? Only light makes all this possible. These images give the viewer something to contemplate. The paper images created in the darkroom have extended lines drawn by hand with ink onto the paper landscape which is a reference to invisible space, the conundrum of the visible and invisibility of the sky. There are many subliminal references to brain activity within the imagery and medium in which they are created (chemical, light, electricity). This exhibit would allow me to make the photographs interact with the viewers by extending the ink lines beyond the paper, onto the wall. From here, imagine a point where an actual wire would come out from the wall and criss-cross across the wall and into the room. It would be like taking the wires from the street and putting them into the gallery and having an organized tangle for the public to maneuver through. This would cause an awareness of the presence and dependence of these wires/lines and our reliance upon them in our every day lives and how they mimic the “wiring” of our brains. Below is a glimpse into my thought process in regards to this photographic creation and idea.

What do these line photographs suggest? What prompted me to make them?

Peripheral vision; where vision physically starts and ends versus where it ends in our minds or imagination. The window of our vision while traveling along in life, like when you're riding in a car or train, looking out a window, walking down a city street or country road. Internal landscapes.

Intersections: multiplicity of meaning(s) - what is being intersected, what is crossing? Telephone wires; they are connecting people, conversations, communication over long distances, but we cannot see the sound. Electric lines; energy supplies for people to live their lives and carry on with daily activities, including communication – again energy we cannot see but rely on for living. This is a visual metaphor for what goes on in our brains. There are infinite connections happening every moment in our brains to keep us functioning internally, and outside, these telephone and electrical lines (like brain/neural connectors) also keep us functioning in our external world.

Space vs. Ground: Our environment with human traces of connecting - what's being connected or communicated in these lines? (invisible life activity) These lines and wires that look like giant strings across the sky in our city and urban environment is that they are like a giant web. We have made these things to keep ourselves connected. Yet these strings, lines, wires, connective and active creations decorate our environment like the electric lights on Christmas trees, or keep us confined like the currents in an electric fence...yet these lines are not decorative. They are obscene - they are not pretty. They can be messy, chaotic and beautiful at the same time, like our minds. Sometimes they almost disappear from our vision - we forget they are there, until we want to take a pretty picture. Then they are in the way - a nuisance, a visual annoyance, like a barking dog in the quiet of dawn.

Reality vs. Imagination: brain functions, duality of the two hemispheres connected, consciousness, neurotransmitters, electrical/chemical synapses. This connects reality to the imagination, visually and physically via photographic process.

Time and Space: involves timelines, time-space continuity, quantum physics, mystery in our universe throughout history in the human mind, an attempt to find answers to these questions.

Glynnis Reed's See-Thru Proposal

2010-06-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Glynnis Reed- See-Through Proposal

I am very excited by the potential opportunity of working with Prof. Shinsuke Shimojo on the “See Through” project. I would love to have the opportunity to collaborate with Mr. Shimojo and other artists on these subjects of great interest to me. I feel my work is relevant to this project for a number of reasons. As an artist working in photography I am interested in spaces of perceptual ambiguity and links between perception and emotion. I explore these ideas in my recent body of work titled “Obscura”.

“Obscura” consists of photo based digital images that are composed of layers of landscape photos that have been digitally collaged, manipulated, then overlaid with translucent black silhouettes of women. To create the work, I photographed in the rich redwood forest in Woodside, CA and used Photoshop to create digital collages. The title of the series references the camera obscura, a darkened room into which light is admitted through a tiny opening in one of the walls or windows and an inverted image from the outside world appears against the wall or screen opposite the opening. Obscura reveals a moody, enigmatic space that merges my own subjectivity with narratives about the uncontainable forces of nature and the female psyche. I also explore the shadowy subconscious shedding a bit of light on the untamed incongruities there. The images are dark in mood and mysterious, revealing some of the beauties that lie in darkness. The work relates to the physical idea of perception and the neurophysiological processes in which one becomes aware of the world, but also to the sense of perception as intuitive understanding and insight and the complex comprehension of one’s own emotions and others.

The title of this project—“See Through” also intrigues me. It makes me think of its opposite, opacity, and the interplay of translucency and the opaque in the figures and landscape that occupy “Obscura.” The title also makes me think of the idea of “seeing through” illusions to get to what is substantively or emotionally real. The idea of divisions between aspects of reality is reflected in my work and is beautifully expressed in this quote from Michel Foucault in his book “History of Madness”:

“…there is therefore a motionless figure to be found: the simple division into daylight and obscurity, shadow and light, dream and waking, the truth of the sun and the power of midnight. An elementary figure, which only accepts time as the indefinite return of a limit.”

My work also considers the visceral experience of nature and how one’s perception of it changes in the process of framing, photographing, and looking at it again in two-dimensional prints. In my artistic process I go beyond the single “straight,” documentary style photographic image, and use digital manipulations with photography to reveal complex emotional dimensions conveying what goes beyond what is seen and can be documented with the camera.

original proposal application

2010-06-17T06:40:00.000-07:00

I have been fascinated by vision, sensory perception, visual memory and the brain for many years.

What could I contribute to this collaboration:

I have been working as an art instructor at The Braille Institute with adults who have been blind since birth, people who have recently lost their sight, people who have always had limited sight as well as some who are deaf and blind facilitating their creative process for over 20 years. I have learned something about memory, touch, perception and creativity and am eager to add to my knowledge.

I began my journey as an artist using both photography and ceramics. Although I am now focused on sculpture and installation, I continue to make photographs.

I also can contribute practical knowledge about making the project accessible to persons who are visually impaired, deaf, or both.

Ann Marie Rousseau's Proposal

2010-06-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

“SEE THROUGH”

“Surveillance Frameworks” explores ideas around the subject of public space and private lives in relation to contemporary surveillance, particularly that aspect of how we occupy the spaces of urban and other environments, knowing that we are constantly being watched, appraised, surveyed, inspected, monitored, and recorded.

While much of present-day surveillance is meant to track criminals and wrongdoers or to collect buying habits and other commercial information, the aspect of surveillance that interests me has more to do with the inward gaze manifest in the public arena. In all this watching, what is not detected? What is revealed that is unlooked for, unnoticed, disregarded, and imperceptible even, and perhaps especially, to those collecting the information?

“Surveillance Frameworks” portrays those associations that go unseen, unnoticed and invisible, yet are still very much present. Physical proximity, spontaneous gesture, indiscriminate motion, and interconnections of light, color, and space become pieces of a much larger puzzle. The photographs in this series are organized in sequential frames to reveal the choreography of shifting patterns, evidence of relationship and the implications for narrative of those being observed.

List of images submitted:

Title Photograph size date

#1 THE RED SHIRT chromogenic print 20” x 30” 2010

#2 THE BLUE FLOOR CROWD chromogenic print 20” x 30” 2010

#3 THE BLACK DRESS chromogenic print 20” x 30” 2010

#7 HIGH HEELS chromogenic print 20” x 30” 2010

A.M.Rousseau

Yoichi Kawamura's proposal

2010-06-14T13:58:00.001-07:00

Yoichi Kawamura’s proposal for ‘See-Through’
Why:
I want to be a part of this project because I believe that my question in art can be more fully explored with neuroscience and will help my work enter the next level. In my art, I feel that I access the integrated part of the brain which I think of as being comprised of the heart, soul and intellect in an intuitive sense. My experience is that when these elements are working in unison, they produce a sublime beauty which is meditative and tranquil. People have told me that viewing this in my work has changed the way they perceive the world. I want to delve more fully into this.

Questions: Here are some questions which I would bring to the project:

Where does sublime beauty come from and how does it affect us – from a neurological sense? Can we see it? Touch it? May we see and touch what we feel in our hearts - in that part of the mind that is touched by the sublime? How does human perception see Space and why does that give us a feeling of vastness and at the same time, a feeling of aloneness – of an outsider looking in.

How do visual queues touch off brain synapses, release chemicals in our brains that make us feel a certain way? Where, when and how does Space have a feeling of fullness especially when juxtaposed with everyday Humanity? I position small portions of reality at the bottom of my images. It is a juxtaposition which gives reference to the space above. I have my own internal intuitive reasoning for this – but what is it? And, why do other people respond to this in my work?

How can you use photography to make light and space more tactile? And experience it fully, like James Turrell’s ‘End Around’ (which I saw at Pomona College in the Fall of 2007) which bathed the viewer in light vibrating to a point where you felt it all around you like a mist, or Dennis Wheeler’s work ‘RM 669’ (currently at the MOCA) which again bathes you in this beautiful light, making it tactile.

Why are there many people so drawn to the blue sky in many of my images? I once observed someone viewing one of Yves Klein’s IKB images; I was impressed by how she was so emotionally and physically affected by the intense blue color. How do you get a photograph to do that? How does my color palette in my images affect people?

On the other hand, why are there people who are drawn to the cloudy skies in many of my images?

Can the Void be seen and felt? To me the Void is full and alive as Yves Klein so famously underscored to us.

Vision of my work contribution:
I envision a large projected work which people would experience in a gallery space. As part of this work, I want to be able to measure their neurological responses and use that somehow as material for me to make new art. Maybe translate those responses into colors or sounds or some tonal values. The images projected could be combinations of color and shapes and forms.

Photography is a two dimensional medium. For me, the third dimension is color which brings in the emotional and spiritual quality to my work. How can I use color or other aspect of my work to elicit even fuller and richer experiences?

Proposal from Mei Xian Qiu

2010-06-13T21:23:00.001-07:00

My photographic work always deals with what is expected and what is not expected within the picture window and contains a linear narrative undercurrent. In the case of the images attached, the inevitable process of memory, cognition, and various subconscious associations, impels a context and story to the nature mortes, the contemplations of light and detritus, because of the presentation of these objects and natural elements within a “portrait window,” in other words, a psychological visual journey book.

The viewer of the photographs is presented with a window within a window, or a frame within a frame, and is compelled to perceive a hidden meaning or psychological import by following the trajectory of shadow to light, surveying half lit things in an empty room, a flurry of dead bees and blood, and a black and white photograph. The evidence of human beings combined with the lack of the presence of any in the photographs, give the opportunity for the viewer to be the “subject” of the picture frame, directly contemplating that photograph, the mound of tiny corpses, or the shower of light in the dark. As human beings, we are experientially trained to perceive a psychological or even spiritual significance to a pour of light from an ornate frame of a window, harkening to cathedrals, or of the turning of night to day. We generously endow a narrative created by the frames inside the imagery.

Within the framework on brain science, a legion of hidden and associative meanings, subconscious and conscious, are lent to an empty room, what Dr Shinsuke Shimojo’s described as the “hidden, invisible process utilizing physical and physiological optics, subconscious and physiological mechanisms, associations to memory, emotion and action….” We create an abstracted “meaning” through photography and other means by giving only the barest of suggestions. What I find as interesting as the ability of human beings through these mechanisms to “know” much from seemingly sparse stimuli, is to create photographs for this interesting and unique project, that 1) go against the expectation of the viewer (ie. A person in a video says “I love you” while pointing and shooting a gun) and that 2) in which the meaning is constructed for the viewer through these barest of suggestions.

original proposal from Meg Madison

2010-06-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

A good man is hard to find

Sister Imelda

What we talk about when we talk about love

Where are you going, where have you been?

MEG MADISON Proposal
SEE-THROUGH- An Investigation of Photography, Perception and Brain Science

My photography is about memory and image. My early B&W work, Memories of Childhood was pictures of idyllic childhood moments designed to provoke memories in the viewer. I am intrigued by the fragment of memory that lingers in their mind of the viewer and gets kindled by viewing one of my photographs. I am interested in memory, perception, and especially how, what the viewer observes in a photograph is often more than what is actually depicted in that picture. My framing of pictures is more about what is outside the frame, and this is something that the viewer can only access by utilizing perceptions of their own.

“What I find most intriguing about (human) perceptual experience is that what is visible is the result of a hidden, invisible process utilizing physical and physiological optics, subconscious and physiological mechanisms, associations to memory, emotion and action, just to name a few. “ S Shimojo

I find the statement of Dr.. Shimojo’s on perception to be fascinating in terms of the possibilities it poses for overlap between the stated ideas and my work with memory and image. For SEE-THROUGH I propose the use of traditional black and white film to photograph, and then re-photograph symbols that relate to memory. The symbols would be chosen because of a connection to my own and selected participants memories or perhaps be subject matter that comes from the collaboration with group members. I would then distress or destroy the negatives to duplicate the effects of time on memories. Then with these distressed negatives I would create prints in the darkroom utilizing the collaboration to alter the normal direction that would come of the usual chemical process. If more appropriate I would scan the negative and use the addition of color as a conceptual component tied to a scientific process.

Alternatively, I would be delighted to participate with no fixed idea and go where this collaboration could lead. I have studied science and math in my early college years and harbor a fascination for the intersection between science and art.

Photographs accompany this proposal from my recent project RIGHTSIZING NARRATIVE.

RIGHTSIZING NARRATIVE is a project that grew out of my investigation of memory, and the amazement of discovering what was an actual memory, and what was a memory of viewing snapshots or home movies of an earlier time. I began this project by returning to childhood places to take photographs utilizing the methodology of seventies black and white street photography to create a sense of the veracity of the real moment. Always the intent is on posing the question of what is authentic, pointing out the confusion between this “real moment” and real life.

Then I constructed a second set of photographs with the intent of adding mystery and narrative direction to the first group. The first documentary photograph gets paired with a second constructed image. Each diptych elicits imagined relationships, encouraging the creation of narrative flow between the images. I have used titles of well-know short stories to bring another lever of narrative to the compositions. This photographic and narrative fragmentation exposes the difficulty in identifying and differentiating between the factual and fictional, questioning our cultural definitions of both.
May 2010

original proposal from Ching

2010-06-13T17:44:00.001-07:00

I am interested in how the brain works. Does the brain work differently within different individuals? Perception is a result of an interplay between past experience, previous recognition, and culture.

The connection between receiving and reaction, the transition between one state of mind to another, the cause of the result and the relationship between each of these elements are the focus of my work.

A mechanical device such as a camera captures a photograph, a photograph has no history, but humans give a picture a story, and we put our personal memories into a picture placed before us. This picture, the moment that this picture represents becomes a memory, which is interpreted differently from one individual to another. Without a physical camera, people still capture images through the brain. Our brain is like a cognitive camera, and each blink of the eye captures a fragment of a memory.

For this project, I would like to use film negatives to represent the process, the transition, and explore more on the connection between sensory and how the perception is formed. The film negatives represent all the fragments. Our brain processes the negatives with our past experience, with feelings to create its own interpretation of memory.

some ideas I am pondering

2010-06-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

I am thinking of two general ideas--plenty of room for collaboration and additions.

One idea is to take a large digital print and divide it into smaller segments that the viewer sees one segment at a time - processing the visual information like a congenitally blind person would. Perhaps a written description about the complete picture could accompany the segments- in both large print and braille.

Another idea I had was to print pictures as seen by someone with "normal" vision, then the same pictures as viewed by persons with various types ( protanopia- red green, tritanopia- blue yellow, & deuteranopia - green red) of color vision deficiencies.

I am interested in the vision information converted to sound if someone else has some ideas on how to approach that.

Photos from Ginger Van Hook

2010-06-13T17:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks Ginger for the photos!