Ways of Seeing

New Ways of Seeing

Everyday people take in visual data through their eyes. Most of the time it is just as simple as seeing a tree and recognizing that it is a tree, but what if we can see it as more than that. When I see a tree sometimes I will picture in my mind what it would look like in a printed picture. I can see it in color and in black and white or both in one. Then I think about the background how should the sky look, clear and sunny or cloudy and dull. Then I think about the season how will that tree look in the different seasons and which look would be the look I want to get out of it. Using the tree is only one example, but really anything that can be seen can be visualized in this way. I was on my way to work the other day and passed a small private airport. It was cloudy but there were spots where the sun was coming through the clouds. It looked like spot lights coming out of the sky all up and down the runway and in all different directions. It would have been a great picture, but I did not have my camera. The runway and the lights coming from the sky gave a very cool perspective and I wish I had my camera. I like trying to find scenery like this and imagining what it would look like as a photograph even if I do not have my camera to make it a photograph, I have my eyes and my mind.

Another thing I do is when I see certain objects I imagine what it could be and even look like in another medium. Something as simple as a stack of boxes can inspire something unexpected. In my mind I picture that they are floating in 3-d space and I can view them in a 360-degree space. Which can lead to thinking of cool ways to display those boxes in a re-imagined way. Like hanging them from the ceiling by strings and presenting them in way which is not normal. When I look at an object I can see it as what it is, but I also can be inspired by the object and start to see it in different ways. This will come in handy later in the year when I start to sculpt ice. Seeing an object or animal and being able to see it in ice. Then being able to see the ice and see the objects in the ice block. When I see the objects in different ways it does not have to be the object as a whole, it can be just parts of the whole and used in a way originally unintended. The parts can be used in a verity of different ways. This can help in video art because it will allow me to visualize an outcome of what the project should be and then I will find the objects necessary to make it. By using the tools I have at my disposal I will can produce the pictures in my mind so other people can enjoy them too.

One way of seeing that I need to expand my ways of seeing is when looking at abstract art. I can view objects in some ways that people can not, but abstract art is always something I have a hard time looking at. I always try to identify what it is and try to make connections with things I have seen before. I see things for what they are and or what they could potentially be. When I see something that as no connection with something that I recognize or have heard of it makes it very difficult to view. I need to view the piece with an open mind and forget about what I have seen before so I can view the pieces for their own attributes. I need to focus on what the piece is trying to tell through the colors, shapes, lines and movement. Are the colors bright or dull? Do the shapes have pointed edges or rounded? Are the lines straight or curvy are they uniform or chaotic? I need to ask myself these questions to try and wrap my mind around this kind of art and understand what it is. Especially in abstract video art because a lot of it is very abstract and I really do not get it, but art is anything someone says is art.