Research Proposal - Version 2

Light, Colour, and the Act of Seeing

This research engages with phenomenological aesthetics, exploring how perception is shaped by embodied experience and sensory engagement. By examining the dynamic relationship between the viewer and the artwork, I aim to deepen my understanding of how light, colour, and materiality influence the subjective experience of an artwork. Rather than treating perception as a passive process, this research considers vision as an active, bodily experience, requiring movement, and interaction.

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My studio practice incorporates a variety of techniques, including but not limited to drawing, painting, photography, and screen-printing. These techniques all bring different properties into my work. Drawing and painting allow for a meticulous, detail-orientated approach, often leaning toward realism. These methods enable me to slow down and maintain majority of control over the creative process. In contrast, photography serves as a means to capture both spontaneous movements and carefully staged compositions, offering balance between documentary and theatrical elements. These photos are often chosen and used elsewhere in my practice as references. Screen-printing, being a relatively recent addition to my practice, currently provides a hands-on approach to image manipulation as well as image reproduction. It is an explorative corner of my practice as I learn more about its capabilities and its possibilities, yet is quickly building its own foundation within the space. I am looking to explore different ways to interlace these processes in a layered and more abstract fashion, creating works that have interactive and/or immersive factors.

Beyond the studio, my research methods extend into observational and experiential studies. Activities such as listening to music, going for walks in various environments, and attending exhibition openings serve as informal but essential modes of research. These experiences offer diverse sensory inputs, informing my approach to audience interaction. By immersing myself in and drawing inspiration from the wider creative community, I have been able to build discussions surrounding participatory art.

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In my artistic practice, I frequently engage with theoretical and scientific studies regarding colour, optics, and visual perception. These investigations have led me to the Samoiloff effect, a colour phenomenon that I have refined into a technique revealing hidden and/or distorted images through the interplay of RGB and CMYK colour systems. These phenomenological effects can be seen as equal with my representational and pictorial ideas relating to change, appearance, self-image/self-ideation, and view, as the effect and imagery work together to produce a ‘story’. At times, the effect or the imagery must take precedence over the other depending on the context of the work, or the context of the space. While these optical principles have advanced my approach to dynamic visuals, this project seeks to expand audience engagement by further integrating embodied perception—compelling the viewer to move and interact with the work—alongside mediated perception, incorporating components that alter how/what the audience sees.

• Batchelor, David. “Chromophobia,” 2000. https://approachestopainting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/163577202-chromophobia-david-batchelor.pdf.

• Crary, Jonathan. “Techniques of the Observer on Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century,” 1990. https://monoskop.org/images/3/34/Crary_Jonathan_Techniques_of_the_Observer_1990 pdf.

• Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. “Phenomenology of Perception,” 1945. https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Phenomenology-of-Perception-by-Maurice-Merleau-Ponty.pdf.

• TED. “Olafur Eliasson: Playing with Space and Light.” YouTube Video. YouTube, August 7, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCGuG0uT6ks.

• www.gooses.co.nz. “The History of Screen Printing,” n.d. https://www.gooses.co.nz/about/History+of+Screen+Printing.html.