Perceptual Apparatus
1993

Introduction

Statement of work:

Introduction to Perceptual Apparatus

This body of work came about after working as a photographer for 15 years. After years of searching to represent or document experiences (formal composition, texture, repetition, poetic coincidence, synchronicity, chance, metaphor), I realized that there was an inherent distance between the impetus to take the photographs and the resulting art. I felt I had to break away from what I perceived as a static, lifeless, abstracted relationship to the viewer. Instead of presenting finished photographs travel logs of people places and things from my travels I began to explore ways of involving the viewer directly in the process of how the work was created. I began to look more closely at my own vision and perception (my own way of approaching the world and photography) and, at the same time, to invite the viewer to join in the experience of questioning what we see, as well as why and how.

These glasses originated from studying the photographs of the earliest practitioners of photography. I began to appreciate the periphery of their images. Actually I began to only enjoy the edges of their photographs. With the central subjects removed the photographs take on new life. They become a realm without context fluctuating meanings. These glasses were constructed to facilitate this process of decontextualization.

Our perception begins from what we are, how are bodies function, what we sense, what we have on our bodies. Any change to the way we function physically, results in a powerful experience of self perception.

As a photographer, my primary concerns are vision and light. By exploring the impact of altered vision through a series of optical devices constructed to restrict or enhance the wearer's experience of seeing, this body of work invites the viewer (or the wearer, the participant) to consider what it means to see. By disrupting the visual apparatus we alter the point of view which opens the viewer to a new interpretation of ultimately their immediate surroundings and existence.

At the same time, the optical devices operate as a filter between the wearer and the perception of an experience. In my own search for an understanding of the impact and the limitations of the static photographic image, the optical devices represent a way to explore the relationship between an experience (or the memory of an experience) and it's translation into art.