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Beyond the Everyday
Art has the ability to go beyond everyday experiences, beyond a critique or re-presentation of the
issues and problems of society. Art has the ability to bring an unfamiliar, ephemeral, and abstract
experience to the table that allows the suspension of rational thought. Art’s obvious strength is to
alter perception, an internal manifestation subjective to each person. Art can alter the filters that
people impose or put up based on previous experiences or ignorance. Perception may change
someone’s way of viewing the world but most often it continues to be communicated as a form of
judgment. Art and its ability to sway perception should be able to eradicate moments of judgment. It
should propel us into an abstract way of thinking, adjourning judgment and allowing us to accept a
moment or object for what it truly is. A suspension and purity of sight through perception is a huge
step in altering how one copes with other situations in throughout their life. I believe the ability to
affect external change begins internally and comes from within. Art, if practiced in a manner that
focuses on how a person is wired internally, can have a tremendous affect on how they deal with
events and problems externally.
Internal and External Parameters
The body is a physically accountable structure, an interactive organism with its environment that is in
unison with sustainable properties of nature. Living things posses an internally generated, rhythmic
and pulsating organic grid, a matrix of chemically induced synaptic and spiritual energy. The ‘human
condition’ is reactive dialog with the surrounding environment, accessible when both internal and
external energies coalesce. Observing this distinction the parameters and forms in my projects are
internally or externally generated. Though my projects are structured, directed, and mapped from
either internal or external sources, the process shares similar psychological and transcendental
effects.
External forms are predetermined, fixed in a limited number of interpretations. Selecting and
mimicking the form or feel of an object separate from the body is a re-presentation. Decisions in
setting up parameters such as how much and how long a piece will last are directed by the subject
and materials. Parameters are established at or near the beginning of the process. The
establishment of parameters is a decision making process,an expression, and signifier of a
controlled environment, a metaphorical address to understand and direct nature, even though it
continually exceeds comprehension and rationalization. The idea is that the permutations in the
projects can continue infinitely.
Using the body or organism as a gage to direct parameters is a signifier of nature. This
dichotomous observation of internally and externally generated parameters heightens perceptual
awareness of interconnection and dependency to surrounding environments.
Developing an Indifferent Response
From the premise that no two things are alike, that they replicate and are infinitely interconnected
and interdependent suggests that there are no definitive stopping and starting points to anything.
Recognizing that all things are in a state of motion and transformation, at what point does art
(simulation) and life (everything else) overlap? Conceptually the delineation of art and life is
subjective and if all things are interconnected the question becomes inconsequential. A simple act
of recognition, that something exists or is present, is a response spawned by the idea or object in
question, an immediate confirmation of its presence.
Indifference is without reason most often experienced as an unintentional first response, though a
person can choose to suspend judgment. What is important during an initial experience is that we
recognize the fact that something has moved or instigated a response or displacement of our
understanding. Taste, judgment, acceptance, and rejection are secondary responses rooted in
evaluation and rationalization intended to categorize and fit an object or idea into a familiar and
relevant discourse. These secondary responses are culturally and socially filtered based on
previous experience. Recognizing the moment when we are engaged in an indifferent, purely
experiential observation before judgment or categorization takes place is the first step in
understanding a perceptual shift. External change becomes possible once ways of internally
perceiving are reordered.
Sound and Imaged
The time and space properties of sound are very different from an object. The ephemeral quality of
sound comes closer to conveying the reality of a moment. For my work the recorded sound is a
product of real time used to help direct a person imagine a specific moment in space and time.
Sound is a secondary sense element that helps relay the process. While working on a project sound
becomes a relevant bi-product, an enhancement that confirms a visual experience. Each project has
a unique displacement of space and time.
Sound is unavoidable, peripherally present at all times unlike the peripheral limitations of sight. The
recordings are always related to the projects, an accompaniment that reinforces some of the
underlying ideas. Though similar to the visual equivalent recorded sound remains one step
removed from the actual process but it is more effective in helping viewers relate and possibly
visualize a person in the act of making. The recordings place viewers between the physicality of the
visual document and a time based simulation of the actual experience in creating the document.
Actions represented by sound must be imagined and re-constructed in the mind of the experiencer
where they register, more often, as a ‘truthful’ encounter. The passing and ephemeral encounter of
a sound is less likely and more difficult to contradict whereas a visual object such as a painting or
sculpture allows a viewer the option to indefinitely look and question what they are seeing.
This inclusion of a second sense element is an ongoing investigation into how people construct an
experience based on combined and selected sensorial input.
Art has the ability to go beyond everyday experiences, beyond a critique or re-presentation of the
issues and problems of society. Art has the ability to bring an unfamiliar, ephemeral, and abstract
experience to the table that allows the suspension of rational thought. Art’s obvious strength is to
alter perception, an internal manifestation subjective to each person. Art can alter the filters that
people impose or put up based on previous experiences or ignorance. Perception may change
someone’s way of viewing the world but most often it continues to be communicated as a form of
judgment. Art and its ability to sway perception should be able to eradicate moments of judgment. It
should propel us into an abstract way of thinking, adjourning judgment and allowing us to accept a
moment or object for what it truly is. A suspension and purity of sight through perception is a huge
step in altering how one copes with other situations in throughout their life. I believe the ability to
affect external change begins internally and comes from within. Art, if practiced in a manner that
focuses on how a person is wired internally, can have a tremendous affect on how they deal with
events and problems externally.
Internal and External Parameters
The body is a physically accountable structure, an interactive organism with its environment that is in
unison with sustainable properties of nature. Living things posses an internally generated, rhythmic
and pulsating organic grid, a matrix of chemically induced synaptic and spiritual energy. The ‘human
condition’ is reactive dialog with the surrounding environment, accessible when both internal and
external energies coalesce. Observing this distinction the parameters and forms in my projects are
internally or externally generated. Though my projects are structured, directed, and mapped from
either internal or external sources, the process shares similar psychological and transcendental
effects.
External forms are predetermined, fixed in a limited number of interpretations. Selecting and
mimicking the form or feel of an object separate from the body is a re-presentation. Decisions in
setting up parameters such as how much and how long a piece will last are directed by the subject
and materials. Parameters are established at or near the beginning of the process. The
establishment of parameters is a decision making process,an expression, and signifier of a
controlled environment, a metaphorical address to understand and direct nature, even though it
continually exceeds comprehension and rationalization. The idea is that the permutations in the
projects can continue infinitely.
Using the body or organism as a gage to direct parameters is a signifier of nature. This
dichotomous observation of internally and externally generated parameters heightens perceptual
awareness of interconnection and dependency to surrounding environments.
Developing an Indifferent Response
From the premise that no two things are alike, that they replicate and are infinitely interconnected
and interdependent suggests that there are no definitive stopping and starting points to anything.
Recognizing that all things are in a state of motion and transformation, at what point does art
(simulation) and life (everything else) overlap? Conceptually the delineation of art and life is
subjective and if all things are interconnected the question becomes inconsequential. A simple act
of recognition, that something exists or is present, is a response spawned by the idea or object in
question, an immediate confirmation of its presence.
Indifference is without reason most often experienced as an unintentional first response, though a
person can choose to suspend judgment. What is important during an initial experience is that we
recognize the fact that something has moved or instigated a response or displacement of our
understanding. Taste, judgment, acceptance, and rejection are secondary responses rooted in
evaluation and rationalization intended to categorize and fit an object or idea into a familiar and
relevant discourse. These secondary responses are culturally and socially filtered based on
previous experience. Recognizing the moment when we are engaged in an indifferent, purely
experiential observation before judgment or categorization takes place is the first step in
understanding a perceptual shift. External change becomes possible once ways of internally
perceiving are reordered.
Sound and Imaged
The time and space properties of sound are very different from an object. The ephemeral quality of
sound comes closer to conveying the reality of a moment. For my work the recorded sound is a
product of real time used to help direct a person imagine a specific moment in space and time.
Sound is a secondary sense element that helps relay the process. While working on a project sound
becomes a relevant bi-product, an enhancement that confirms a visual experience. Each project has
a unique displacement of space and time.
Sound is unavoidable, peripherally present at all times unlike the peripheral limitations of sight. The
recordings are always related to the projects, an accompaniment that reinforces some of the
underlying ideas. Though similar to the visual equivalent recorded sound remains one step
removed from the actual process but it is more effective in helping viewers relate and possibly
visualize a person in the act of making. The recordings place viewers between the physicality of the
visual document and a time based simulation of the actual experience in creating the document.
Actions represented by sound must be imagined and re-constructed in the mind of the experiencer
where they register, more often, as a ‘truthful’ encounter. The passing and ephemeral encounter of
a sound is less likely and more difficult to contradict whereas a visual object such as a painting or
sculpture allows a viewer the option to indefinitely look and question what they are seeing.
This inclusion of a second sense element is an ongoing investigation into how people construct an
experience based on combined and selected sensorial input.
Charles Livingston Studio
| Writings |