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Seeing Beauty:A Visual Exploration of Transformative Experience

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Seeing Beauty A Visual Exploration of Transformative Experience. by Alyssa Simone BVA Hons, First Class, University Medal, The University of Sydney Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Tasmania, June 2011 Signed statement of originality This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis. To the best of my knowledge and belief, it incorporates no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. Alyssa Simone ii Signed statement of authority of access to copying This thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Alyssa Simone iii Abstract This thesis is concerned with developing a visual language to explore the concept of immaterial reality as encountered through transformative experience. Many individuals have had unique, and often profound, transformative experiences which have made them aware of a different order of reality. Following the experience, there is a certainty within the individual that an intangible aspect of reality exists, traditionally referred to as the immaterial or spiritual. The experiences are not exclusive to, or necessarily associated with, traditional forms of institutionalised religion and they are not automatically related to the occult. They can occur to any individual, regardless of age, sex, race or their location in time and space. The experiences are imbued with an archetypal form of beauty which permeates the individual’s vision of existence. This deepened vision becomes part of their daily experience of reality. Utilising archetypal imagery, light, pattern, symmetry, and geometry, I visually explore my transformative experiences. The exploration of the archetypal concepts of transformation, duality and the immaterial, has resulted in a body of work comprised of installations that incorporate video, photography and sound. Each of the seven works draws from my own subjective experience of reality, creating a highly personal, meditative, and immersive environment. Personal transformative experience has prompted me to examine the metaphysical questions surrounding the human condition. This has resulted in a multidisciplinary theoretical framework for my art practise. I have engaged with writings from psychology, philosophy, mythology, modern physics and comparative religion, including the works of C.G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, Fritjof Capra and Paul Davies. The same questions of existence stimulated by my transformative experiences have inspired artists throughout recorded history. My research is contextualised by contemporary artists who explore matters pertaining to the immaterial aspects of reality. Video artists, Bill Viola and Jordan Belson, explore their own subjective iv transformative experiences, while others explore humanity’s spiritual connection with nature, or imbue their work with an invisible presence through an engagement with human perception. I seek to contribute to my field through an examination of ancient archetypal symbols and ideas using new technologies. Thus I have utilised, computer generated imagery and digitally generated audio to represent the experience of revelation and create a metaphor for spiritual transformation. Additionally, my work links the idea of transformation and revelation to experiences of childhood; both through the recreation of experiences from my childhood as well as drawing on more recent events with my own children. These aspects combine to render an individual vision of a universal experience. v Acknowledgements I offer my fondest regards and deepest thanks to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of my PhD, especially, Janelle Mendham who has reminded me of the true meaning of friendship. I am deeply indebted to Byron Drogemuller, who unconditionally offered me his love, encouragement, intelligence, humour, guidance, insight and experience throughout my degree. In addition to all that I have mentioned he cared for our beautiful children, Ash and Amélie, who were both born during my candidature. I would like to show my infinite gratitude and dedicate this thesis to him. vi Contents Introduction.......................................................................................................1 Part I: Transformative Experience: a deeper view of reality Introduction ......................................................................................................6 Beyond Normal Perception...............................................................................6 A Personal Experience......................................................................................8 Transcendent Experience................................................................8 Synchronicity ..................................................................................14 Transformative Experience and Modern Physics ...........................19 Spirit Photography ..........................................................................22 An Archetypal Experience................................................................................31 An Ineffable Experience ...................................................................................33 A Contemporary Experience.............................................................................35 A Deeper Perception.........................................................................................43 Part II: Transformative Experience and Art Introduction ......................................................................................................46 Art and the Invisible .........................................................................................47 The European Cathedral: A Contemporary Installation Space ........................48 Bill Viola and Transformative Experience ......................................................51 Geometry ..........................................................................................................58 Art and Nature ..................................................................................................73 Perception and the invisible .............................................................................75 An Invisible Presence .......................................................................................77 Conclusion .......................................................................................................80 Part III: Seeing Beauty: a personal exploration of transformative experience Introduction ......................................................................................................81 Port Arthur and the spirit photograph ..............................................................81 Resonance ........................................................................................................83 vii Synchronicity ...................................................................................................94 Archetype .........................................................................................................96 Finding a visual Language for Transformative Experience .............................102 Threshold .........................................................................................................104 Lumen ..............................................................................................................110 Synaesthesia .....................................................................................................113 Colours of the Darkness ...................................................................................117 Psyche ..............................................................................................................121 Conclusion ........................................................................................................124 Part IV: An individual vision of a universal experience Conclusion .......................................................................................................125 Appendices Appendix I: Bibliography ................................................................................127 Appendix II: List of Illustrations .....................................................................140 Appendix III: List of Submitted Work .............................................................149 Appendix IV: Curriculum Vitae ......................................................................150 viii Introduction Humans experience reality through their five senses, Seeing Beauty visually explores a reality beyond normal perception. As a child, deeply fascinated by the human body, my parents presented me with a highly detailed pop-up book on the subject. It was in this book that I discovered that the human eye actually perceives reality upside down and the brain then reverses the image (Fig. 1). Figure 1 Image from my pop-up book. Subsequent to discovering this information I spent a great deal of time opening my eyes quickly in an endeavour to see the world upside-down before my brain altered it. (I assumed that there was a lag time between the eye seeing and the brain interpreting.) I became fascinated with this in- between moment, it held a truth about reality which I thought, if I could only
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