A CHAIR, IS A CHAIR, IS A CHAIR.

'One and Three Chairs' Joseph Kosuth

Kosuth is a conceptual artist who's work was at the forefront of the contemporary art movement in the 1960's. The philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein influenced the development of his work, where he has consistently explored the connections between words and things, between language and representation.

This work, titled 'One and Three Chairs' consisted of an actual chair, a photograph depicting the same chair and a written description of the chair. This tautology creates a closed system that resists any kind of transcendent meaning, though it does probe questions as to which is the most valuable or the most real version of the chair. While reading some responses to the work on various Blogs, I came across a suggestion that the title indicates the existance of a fourth, imagined chair. How important would the idea of the chair be?

In terms of my project, I can relate to these relationships between the actual object, the imagined, the photograped and the written. Though I am also interested in the spaces between them. As the object passes from one mode to another, how much information is lost and how information is gained? Does a new expression of the object bring about new meaning? I'd like to know how much room there is for interpretation.



The mechanisms of this particular work were founded by Kosuth, though he also devised a set of instructions, so that any curator was able to recreate the installation. Various chairs were used, alongside a saw, a kitchen pot, a lamp and other everyday objects.



'Box, Cube, Empty, Clear, Glass--a Description' - Joseph Kosuth 1965

Barthes suggests that objects can be the same in reality, however, since they are made up of differing substances, they cannot be treated or read in the same manner. The written version, for example, is made up of letters and words, while an image can be visually processed in terms of lines, shapes and colours. Within the written language, there are possibly more variations? Where synonyms can bring about a comparible association.

The above work is also by Joseph Kosuth. Five glass boxes are presented - where each is labeled with a different adjective. The description of the box in each case becomes varied in it's meaning, although the object is exactly the same. Here the relationship between language and its visual counterpart become evident. The viewer could have interpreted the boxes as any one of these things, but by fixing the language to an object in this way, there is almost no room for interpretation.


'Four Coulors, Four Words' - Joseph Kosuth


'Neon' - Joseph Kosuth, 1965



Magritte discussed the relationship between words and images: "An object is not so attached to its names that one cannot find another which suits it better." In his systematic, broken up composition, Magritte points out the superficial nature of language.


'This is a piece of cheese' - Margritte


'The Interpretation of Dreams' - Margritte

tau·tol·o·gy (tô-tl-j)
n. pl. tau·tol·o·gies
1.
a. Needless repetition of the same sense in different words; redundancy.
b. An instance of such repetition.
2. Logic An empty or vacuous statement composed of simpler statements in a fashion that makes it logically true whether the simpler statements are factually true or false; for example, the statement Either it will rain tomorrow or it will not rain tomorrow.

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[Late Latin tautologia, from Greek tautologi, from tautologos, redundant : tauto-, tauto- + logos, saying; see -logy.]

MOVING OUT OF STRUGGLETOWN.

Through my research thus far, I have identified four methods with which I can disrupt the way that visual information is processed. I am interested in conducting a more refined experiment, where 'imperfect and faint' garment representations are presented and participants are to 1) interpret the information and 2) document their interpretation through the use of various 'languages'.

Method 1) To strip the object of its most recognisable features / details. Like the example of the castle images - how many details can be removed before the object is no longer recognised? In the case of this experiment, what will the participant write about when there are no typical details to describe? Will the response be more emotional? Or will other associations be made in order to make a judgement?

Method 2) To change the material. Like in the case of the wooden beanbag sculpture or the silicone jeans I have been creating. Will associations with the material affect the way that the participant reads / interprets the information? What room does this leave for reinterpretation? Will associations that deviate from the garment representation become prominent?

Method 3) Context influences perception. If I present an object that does not represent a garment at all, can the participant be influenced by this fashion context? Will associations with a garment be made? In this scenario, perhaps I can place fashion imagery within the space to measure how influencial it is - if at all.

Method 4) To present the garment as a jumble of information. Much like the way in which the garments turned out in the final stage of the previous experiment, I can tailor an installation-type area, that includes an abundance of random, abstracted garment details. "Objects are recognised by virtue of their parts. Lines, curves, diagonal lines etc." - Cognition, Exploring the Science of the Mind.

I have revisited the writings of Roland Barthes, which have become relevant as my project progresses:

"...they [written clothing and image clothing] do not have the same structure, because they are not made of the same substances and because, consequently, these substances do not have the same relations with eachother."

"...this transition, as in all structures, can only be discontinuous: the real garment can only be transformed into 'representation' by means on certain operators which we might call shifters, since they serve to transpose one structure into another, to pass, if you will, from one code to another."

CHINESE WHISPERS

Hoping to address this question of interpretation, I conducted an experiment that had some really interesting results. I took a series of photographs of some of my garments, where none of which revealed their entirety. The photos were all close up and from different perspectives, documenting a variety of details. The first participant was to view the images for two minutes or so, before then constructing a written response based on what they remembered. I was interested to see how the details were interpreted and whether the participant would fill the gaps and recreate how they imagined the garment to look. The second (different) participant was to reinterpret (without seeing the original photos) the description in a visual sense, where again, I was interested to see what details were lost and/or gained and how the written reponse would then translate back into a visual sense. These are the results:

PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #1: JACKET.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Landscape and Architecture student, RMIT.

Skin's relationship with fabric ---> skin vs. tone.
White loops are strong forms next to the dark fabric.
The arm hair creates another textural layer to the other photos.
White loops ---> button holes.
Dark, heavy material against chest ---> flesh ---> appealing.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #2: SHIRT.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Random girl at Hungry Jacks, Melbourne Central.

Orange.
Skin.
Coil.
Freckle.
Black.
Lines.
Waves.
Warm.
Peach.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #3: DRESS.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Landscape and Architecture student, RMIT.

Linear, sharp, hard.
Grey buttons, jacket, ripples.
Army, pointy.
Loose fitting.
Volume, shape formed by shadow.
Shadows, smooth, falling, frail.
Curtain drawn ---> appears soft to touch.
Lifts in the breeze.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



PHOTOGRAPHIC SERIES, GARMENT #4: SHORTS.



WRITTEN RESPONSE.
Landscape and Architecture student, RMIT.

Denim crotch.
Denim with part of hand.
Denim pocket.
Jean zipper.
Blue denim pocket with a bit of skin showing.
Possibly a denim bodysuit bodysuit, however multiple shots of crotches suggest a sexual theme.

VISUAL INTERPRETATION.
Fashion student, RMIT.



The visual interpretation was dependent upon the richness of the visual response, where both of these factors, I think, also relied on the participant's ability... The glory of personal interpretation. But nonetheless, an assumption I had made in an earlier post was confirmed. What we end up with is a representation of what was before that has been dissasembled and distorted, to be reassorted in a more sensible way. I found out that participants did not in fact piece the garment back together, but further dissassemble the images in terms of lines, shapes, colours and associations. I think that the associations are a key factor that I would perhaps be interested in further exploring, as it might be a way to incorporate some of this



Salvador Dali.

Next step?

METAMORPHOSIS

'Daddy Longlegs of the evening - Hope!'
- SALVADOR DALI

I thought that looking at Surrealism would be a good way to see how psychological theories can translate into something visual. The movement was inspired by Fruedian theories about dreams and the subconscious mind. Surrealist images are presented in an abstracted and dreamlike manner, where the viewer is only able to process the information based on the knowledge attained from a realistic world. I thought the skin on the melting figure in this image almost looks like fabric.



Blurring the boundaries between skin and garment. Draped skin and flesh like material?



I did this collage in Surrealist style, which prompted more refined questions. Imagine a garment made of limbs. How will we know it's a garment? How will it be interpreted? What information do we recall in order to make a judgement? How conscious are we of these associations? How does a reinterpretation of what we've already processed change our perception?



Morphed barbies.



I created this image on photoshop - just to see how I might be able to blurr the boundaries of skin and garment, as the distinction between the layered images become unclear. The viewer has to anaylise the visual information to work out where one ends and the other begins.

MEMORY IN THE SUBCONSCIOUS

If memory and object recognition can be relevant to the shadow definition that is "an imperfect and faint representation", then perhaps I can look at these concepts in terms of the subconscious mind. Surely dreams are shadows - where symbols appear in reference to thoughts and ideas that exist in the concsious stream.

I think it's interesting how we can only try to reinterpret what our unconscious mind has already interpreted. "A thought comes into the mind and when you remember it, you always remember the last recollection." - A friend. Details are lost and connections are made during the process of recollection. In this way, what we end up with is a representation of what was before that has been dissasembled and distorted, to be reassorted in a more sensible way.

Fruedian Theories and psychoanalysis in general, are outdated in modern psychology, although there are no new theories about sleep and the subconscious mind that have been developed. Cognitive studies in psychology are measurable and can be studied through testing, whereis subconsious thought pattern cannot, so is not considered a priority. Surrealist art stemmed predominantly from Frued's theories, which embraced the free thinking subconscious mind.

FREUDIAN THEORY OF DREAMS
Eugen Tarnow
NEURO-PSYCHOANALYSIS
2003, Volume 5, Number 2

Perceptions and thought from the day before the dream disturb the Unconscious. The Unconscious wants to express itself to the ego but is repressed by defense mechanisms until the time of dreaming. At the time of dreaming the defense mechanisms are lifted, leaving behind only a censor to scramble the Unconscious expressions. This censor accounts for the strangeness of dreams. The censor transformation is called “Dream Work”. By studying dreams and their connection to the reality of the individual dreamers, Freud divided the Dream Work into condensation, displacement, the transformation of thought into visual images, and secondary revision. Freud proposed that by interpreting dreams, i.e. by reversing the Dream Work transformation, one could reveal the Unconscious, an important source of human personality.