The Dappled Grey eleven digital images
The Dappled Grey is a projected work that incorporates the Hermann grid illusion. It consists of eleven images that are sequentially projected for several seconds each. The sequence order is shuffled and looped giving millions of viewing permutations. The illusion generates flickering grey dots at the intersections of the horizontal and vertical white lines. The nature of the illusion invites the art viewer to contemplate where these dots reside . . . if they do not exist on the screen do they, instead, exist in the mind? This may lead the viewer, who is maybe familiar with indirect realism, to further reflect on where the image of the horse, white lines, background, screen, room, and gallery building is located. Is it not also in the mind, alongside the flickering dots? This line of enquiry forces us to question the nature of what we are looking at and also raises doubt as to where, ‘it,’ might be. If we are uncertain of the exact location of the image we experience (maybe somewhere in the mind) are we therefore uncertain of where the source (the artwork/external world) is located? Would we not need to know the location of both to measure one from the other? Where is what you see right now? Do you know where your visual experience is? Do you know where the source is? The work also question whether images can exist outside conscious experience. When nobody is looking do artworks simply disappear? Is a closed gallery devoid of art?
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The Dappled Grey - detail demonstrating the illusion more clearly
ABSTRACT
This artwork, 'The Dappled Grey,' utilises an illusion to explore the nature of looking. The experience of looking at the work creates artefacts in the conscious experience that, on close inspection, seem to have no presence or existence at the source (the work). This leads the art viewer to experience a discrepancy between what is consciously perceived and what is offered by reality, or thought to be offered. It is hoped that this challenges the art viewer to consider their own conscious experience and speculate about the nature of reality and what they might know about it, if anything. It is also hoped that art viewers may engage in dialogue about what is happening in the work, and share stories brought to mind by the conundrum that the illusion presents. This artwork is influenced by my sympathies with a new mysterianism perspective. I know a great deal about conscious experiences, I have them all the time. Yet, I know nothing about non-conscious reality, which, as far as I can tell, is inaccessible to me; even if I look at a neuron through a microscope, or the stars through a telescope I only ever witness conscious experiences, the actual reality beyond, if it exists at all, eludes me. This line of thinking offers the possibility that, 'the hard problem,' does not lie with consciousness, but with reality. In which case we may find ourselves with, the easy problem of consciousness and the hard problem of reality. To create the work I started with a standard optical illusion that is often used in talks about consciousness and worked with the idea of transposing the grid like effect onto a familiar object. Working with one of the requirements, a dark background, the idea of a black horse materialised. I began working with a found photograph and started to overlay a grid onto the horse. I then pushed the photograph into a silhouette. This enhanced the mechanics and robustness of the illusion and allowed me to further experiment with the parameters of the grid. To improve, 'the look,' of the grid I changed angles and positions of lines, and added colour. This presented the risk of the illusion collapsing. But I found that it was possible to deviate from the strict symmetrical nature of the standard grid and still maintain a robust illusion. I found that animating the image gave life to the work, and encouraged the art viewer's gaze to move through the scene, which further enhanced the illusion of flickering grey dots. The title, 'The Dappled Grey,' gives a nod to the gray matter of our brain and offers contradiction, the horse is black, yet the illusion offers elements of dapple grey. Historically, art has included illusion, the concepts behind this work invite the art viewer to go further and consider philosophical notions. The viewer is being nudged, for a short time at least, to become a philosopher.
Links to: Centre of Consciousness Studies Archive - University of Arizona
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