FABELIST NOTES

Just started a while ago the pages that related to the OTHER...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:57:38 +0200

Just started a while ago the pages that related to the OTHER PROJECT based on the concept of the undead.Using Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings as a collage to start off with, by creating various types of shrouding and imagining that they are ghosts.Or,some association of the dead at least.

I have had a fasination of the undead,since i had a near-death experience a long timeago.And during my M A fine art course recently,the subject matter came up quite a few times.

It will be interesting for me to see how i will get with this time, since i have decided to develop a ‘visual-diary’.

Kindling a Light by EC (Other)

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:40:00 +0100

The above is a sample from the comments book at my show in the woods.

The comments unwittingly illustrate something I am talking about regarding projection into and scapegoating of the Other.

“The lumen naturae is not a light separate from the darkness. For the alchemists, darkness wasn’t merely an absence of light, but a quality that was an expression of the indwelling light of being that has no opposite. Shadows themselves are nothing other than an expression of light; light itself contains and generates shadows. Where there are no shadows, there is no light. Establishing ourselves in the viewpoint that can join the opposites, uniting the shadow and the light is to not only possess, but to create, genuine wealth within the core of our being. As Jung says, “one who can join the shadow to the light is the possessor of the greater riches.” Among its many names, the philosophers’ stone is called “The Pearl of Great Price,” to signify its pricelessness, its preciousness, and its immeasurable value in all realms, both visible and invisible, outer and inner.” - Quote source, The Light of Darkness by Paul Levy.

Untitled (Il Segreto – La Scintilla Nel Buio), Gesso, Acrylic, Water-based household paint, Spray paint on canvas, 100 x 100 cm’s, EC 2013

Returning to my thoughts about the comment and Other I will quote Jung again and also Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D who writes extensively about understanding the Psyche -

“We still attribute to the other fellow all the evil and inferior qualities that we do not like to recognize in ourselves, and therefore have to criticize and attack him… The world is still full of betes noires and scapegoats, just as it formerly teemed with witches and werewolves”
- G. Jung, Civilization in Transition, p.130

(Bring back the ducking stool and the stocks).

Stephen A. Diamond further observes,

‘‘The shadow,’’ wrote Jung (1963), is ‘‘that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious’’ (cited in Diamond, p. 96). The shadow is a primordial part of our human inheritance, which, try as we might, can never be eluded. The pervasive Freudian defense mechanism known as projection is how most people deny their shadow, unconsciously casting it onto others so as to avoid confronting it in oneself. Such projection of the shadow is engaged in not only by individuals but groups, cults, religions, and entire countries, and commonly occurs during wars and other contentious conflicts in which the outsider, enemy or adversary is made a scapegoat, dehumanized, and demonized. Two World Wars and the current escalation of violence testify to the terrible truth of this collective phenomenon. Since the turn of the twenty-first century we are witnessing a menacing resurgence of epidemic demonization or collective psychosis in the seemingly inevitable violent global collision between radical Islam and Judeo-Christian or secular western culture, each side projecting its collective shadow and perceiving the other as evil incarnate.

The shadow is most destructive, insidious and dangerous when habitually repressed and projected, manifesting in myriad psychological disturbances ranging from neurosis to psychosis, irrational interpersonal hostility, and even cataclysmic international clashes. Such deleterious symptoms, attitudes and behavior stem from being possessed or driven by the dissociated yet undaunted shadow. Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde can be taken as a cautionary tale par excellence: dissociation of the shadow results in a perilously lopsided development of the conscious personality and renders us susceptible to destructive possession by the disowned shadow. The excessively good (almost saintly) Dr. Henry Jekyll is at times taken over body and soul by his equally evil shadow: the depraved, nefarious, psychopathic, wicked Edward Hyde, his complete opposite. Indeed, the shadow contains all those qualities we hide from ourselves and others, but which remain active within the unconscious, forming a sort of ‘‘splinter personality’’ or complex, not unlike the relatively autonomous sub-personalities found in multiple personality (dissociative identity disorder) or in so-called demonic possession or demonism. Under stressful circumstances or in states of fatigue or intoxication, this compensatory alter ego or shadow complex can be triggered into temporarily taking total command of the conscious will. The abject negativity and destructiveness of the shadow is largely a function of the degree to which the individual neglects and refuses to take responsibility for it, only inflaming its ferocity and pernicious power. The shadow’s sometimes overwhelming strength and disturbing ability to intrude into one’s cognitions, affects and behavior has historically been experienced and misinterpreted as demonic possession, for which exorcism is believed to be the only treatment (see my prior post).

Yet, the shadow, while very real, is not meant to be taken concretely or literally but rather, allegorically. It is not an evil entity existing apart from the person, nor an invading alien force, though it may be felt as such. The shadow is a universal (archetypal) feature of the human psyche for which we bear full responsibility to cope with as creatively as possible. But despite its well-deserved reputation for wreaking havoc and engendering widespread suffering in human affairs, the shadow–in distinction to the literal idea of the devil or demons–can be redeemed: The shadow must never be dismissed as merely evil or demonic, for it contains natural, life-giving, underdeveloped positive potentialities too. Coming to terms with the shadow and constructively accepting and assimilating it into the conscious personality is central to the process of Jungian analysis.

…‘‘Bringing the shadow to consciousness,’’ writes another of Jung’s followers, Liliane Frey-Rohn (1967), ‘‘is a psychological problem of the highest moral significance. It demands that the individual hold himself accountable not only for what happens to him, but also for what he projects… Without the conscious inclusion of the shadow in daily life there cannot be a positive relationship to other people, or to the creative sources in the soul; there cannot be an individual relationship to the Divine’’ (cited in Diamond, p. 109).
- QUOTES SOURCE - Essential Secrets of Psychotherapy: What is the “Shadow”?Understanding the “dark side” of our psyche. Published on April 20, 2012 by Stephen A. Diamond, Ph.D

Thanks for reading, EC

A sniff in the 'Other' direction by Pernilla Iggstrom

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 01:58:10 +0100

The word ‘other’ in relation to my subject matter in my art practice, immediately points towards the missing aspects of my life that constitute my identity.

Having no memory of my first 8 months in my birth country, where I was surrounded by people I can’t remember, has automatically divided my life into an ‘other’ part - an’other’ section, an ‘other’ life.

There, where many ‘other’ people , were a part of my life.

This ‘other’ me, that belongs to then, this very small fraction of my life, is yet still a big part of me. It is a huge part just because it is that mysterious and important period when my life begun - unknown territory, a forgotten mother, a lost culture.

This ‘other’ has always wanted to find its way back to me. To return and fuse with the known. That is where my creative side comes into play - the vehicle of this journey where this Gemini’s both beings approach each other.

My name is Jay Shaw-Baker. Here is some work in progress for the...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:38:36 +0100

My name is Jay Shaw-Baker. Here is some work in progress for the ‘Other’ project

OTHER - Some Initial Rough Notes by EC

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:14:00 +0100

I am a mirror

Put everything you are ashamed of here

The inseparable relationship between the subject and the object.

“Just as we tend to assume that the world is as we see it, we naively suppose that people are as we imagine them to be. In this latter case, unfortunately, there is no scientific test that would prove the discrepancy between perception and reality. Although the possibility for gross deception is infinitely greater here than in our perception of the physical world, we still go on naively projecting our own psychology into our fellow human beings. In this way everyone creates for himself a series of more or less imaginary relationships based essentially on projection. Among neurotics there are even cases where fantasy projections provide the sole means of human relationship. A person whom I perceive mainly through my projections is an imago or, alternately, a carrier of imagos or symbols. All the contents of our unconscious are constantly being projected into our surroundings, and it is only by recognizing certain properties of the objects as projections or imagos that we are able to distinguish them from the real properties of the objects. But if we are not aware that a property of the object is a projection, we cannot do anything else but be naively convinced that it really does belong to the object. All human relationships swarm with these projections; anyone who cannot see this in his personal life need only have his attention drawn to the psychology of the press in wartime. Cum grano salis [Latin for with a grain of salt], we always see our own unavowed mistakes in our opponent. Excellent examples of this are to be found in all personal quarrels. Unless we are possessed of an unusual degree of self-awareness we shall never see through our projections but must always succumb to them, because the mind in its natural state presupposes the existence of such projections. It is the natural and given thing for unconscious contents to be projected. In a comparatively primitive person this creates that characteristic relationship to the object, which Levy-Bruhl has fittingly called ‘mystic identity’ or ‘participation mystique.’ Thus every normal person of our time, who is not reflective beyond the average, is bound to his environment by a whole system of projections.”
- Jung, C. G., Collected Works, “The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,” Volume 8, par. 507.

I have been thinking about Projection - Projecting parts of ourselves into the Other and about mirrors (physical and Psychical, Lacan’s ‘Mirror Stage’, perceptions of selfhood emerging from the human infant, mental representations of an ‘I’ and an ‘Other’). During a conversation about projection a friend brought up the book The Picture of Dorian Gray. It could be said that Dorian projects something he finds so terrible or shameful (about himself) into that picture that he cannot bear to look at it. There might be further material for me to explore here by working with this book. I’m not sure.

“We are the mirror as well as the face in it. We are the pain and what cures the pain, both. We are the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.” (Barks, The Essential Rumi, p. 106.)

All the parts of ourselves that we cannot bear we can project into others. We can split these parts off from ourselves. Sometimes causing extremely powerful reactions and repulsions or oppositions to those objects we have projected in to (‘Object’ in the Psychoanalytical sense meaning a person as well as thing).

The OTHER could be The Foreigner, The Immigrant, Woman, Man, Race, Colour, ‘Benefits Scrounger’ and so on and on it goes. This also happens with ‘good’ parts of ourselves too. For example seeing someone as wounded and innocent or kind, when we are perhaps just that and yet see ourselves as bad.

It is a huge task and a difficult one to withdraw our projections from the world. We have seen what it can do with genocide for example and yet can remain (conveniently) ignorant of it in our every day lives convincing ourselves our ideas are correct (this suits us so we don’t have to do the hard work of withdrawing our projections and look at the things we are ashamed of or find unbearable about ourselves). Let others carry it. It can cause astronomical oppositions to arise and profound misunderstandings (internally/externally). You can hear people doing it in everyday conversation. The important thing is to recognise it in ourselves and do something about it.

“Filling the conscious mind with ideal conceptions is a characteristic of Western theosophy, but not the confrontation with the Shadow and the world of darkness…The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular”. - C.G. Jung, Alchemical Studies, par 335, pg 265

There was a wonderful lecture given - which I did not attend but was told about - where twins are in a room with the parents voluntarily being filmed. The lecture audience observes one twin doing all sorts of naughty little things to get what it wants and being quite a terror and the other being quite patient about it but both mother and father say that the naughty twin is such an angel and that the patient twin is the naughty terror! They are not observing what is happening in the room at all.

“Keep quiet and let the symptom speak”

“Lacan’s Mirror Stage

The idea of the “mirror stage” is an important early component in Lacan’s critical reinterpretation of the work of Freud. Drawing on work in physiology and animal psychology, Lacan proposes that human infants pass through a stage in which an external image of the body (reflected in a mirror, or represented to the infant through the mother or primary caregiver) produces a psychic response that gives rise to the mental representation of an “I”. The infant identifies with the image, which serves as a gestalt of the infant’s emerging perceptions of selfhood, but because the image of a unified body does not correspond with the underdeveloped infant’s physical vulnerability and weakness, this imago is established as an Ideal-I toward which the subject will perpetually strive throughout his or her life.
For Lacan, the mirror stage establishes the ego as fundamentally dependent upon external objects, on an other. As the so-called “individual” matures and enters into social relations through language, this “other” will be elaborated within social and linguistic frameworks that will give each subject’s personality (and his or her neuroses and other psychic disturbances) its particular characteristics.

Lacan’s ideas about the formation of the “I” developed over time in conjunction with his other elaborations of Freudian theory. He presented a paper on the mirror stage on August 3, 1936, at a conference of the International Psychoanalytical Association in Marienbad.(It is to this conference that Lacan is referring in the first sentence of the essay). Thirteen years later, on July 17, 1949, at a conference of the International Psychoanalytic Congress in Zurich, Lacan delivered another version of the mirror stage paper that later in the same year appeared in print in the Revue Francais de Psychanalyse. The essay was reprinted in the French publication of Ecrits in 1966. Jean Roussel prepared the first translation into English, which appeared in New Left Review 51 (September/October 1968): 63-77. This publication in English is significant, as it contributed to the introduction of Lacanian theory, and specifically the model of the mirror stage, into leftist intellectual circles in Britain at the time when cultural studies was emerging as a field. A new English translation by Alan Sheridan heads Ecrits: A Selection, which was published in 1977”.

”Gestalt Theory
The German word Gestalt means “pattern” or “figure.” As a psychological concept, Gestalt refers to our perception of a form whose meaning exceeds the totality of its components—a Gestalt is always greater than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology is founded on the observation that we do not comprehend our world as an assemblage of disparate elements, but as a pattern of meaningful forms. Our understanding of a “home”, for example, is derived from more than merely the materials and architectural plans that produce the physical “house.” A “face” is likewise more than a collection of identifiable parts. For Lacan, the imago with which the infant identifies in the mirror stage is a kind of Gestalt. The infant recognizes not only that it is a particular shape, but also grasps that this shape has a special—in fact transformative—significance”. (Source http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/lacan/terms/gestalt.html)

Note: The above 5 drawings on A2 are part of my residency in the woods but are also relevant to Fabelist ‘Other’ project as both concern my ongoing explorations involving Chaos/Order, the Unconscious, Physical and Psychical space in my own practice.

(EC, 2013)

Leszek Blyszczynski ‘DO NOT TOUCH’ ‘Do Not...

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:20:30 +0100

Leszek Blyszczynski ‘DO NOT TOUCH’

‘Do Not Touch’ is a synthesis of my thoughts on ‘Synaesthesia and the Senses’.

Synaesthesia - EC & Rachelle Allen-Sherwood Part 2

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:19:48 +0100

Collaborative Piece Collapsed (Detail) By R Allen Sherwood & EC

Collaborative Piece Collapsed at Tufnell By R Allen Sherwood & EC 2012

Collaborative Piece on Wall Ink, Chalk, Graphite stick, Pencil, Carbon stick, Charcoal & Pen on Fabriano 200gsm, 5ft x 6ft approx, By R Allen Sherwood & EC 2013

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Synaesthesia - Crossing Paths

(EC 2013)

Synaesthesia is of interest to many researchers within psychology, cognitive neuroscience, the arts, genetics, child development and more. By studying synaesthesia, we are able to find out more about the different ways we all experience sights, sounds, tastes, smells, etc. We can learn about sensory perception, cross-modal sensory experiences, brain development, consciousness and much more. - Synaesthesia Research Team, UEL School of Psychology (Dr Mary Spiller, Dr Ashok Jansari, and Clare Jonas)

For me this project has been a way of thinking about Synaesthesia as an experience that poses a question about reality, consciousness and perception. - It points out to me even more the fragility of subjective experience and truth.

Synaesthetic experiences are said to be “idiosyncratic”: they vary from person to person. So while for one person the word February might be lilac in colour, for another person February could be dark green.

- Synaesthesia Research Team, UEL School of Psychology

It has been interesting to concentrate on the Nereids in the British Museum as two individuals with our subjective perception, through our independant drawings and languages. Then to come together in a way that perhaps symbolises the cross-modal nature of Synaesthesia.

The word “synaesthesia” comes from the Greek words “syn”, meaning together and “aethesia” meaning sensation. - Synaesthesia Research Team, UEL School of Psychology

Rachelle and I enter in to, observe and experience the same space differently - So in a sense it is not the same space at all! By bringing this subjective information together on one page (see large final piece) we are allowing data to cross the boundary of the experience of the one. The brain scans of Syneasthetes have been observed to be full of connections and activity that do not appear in those of non-Synaesthete’s (connections between areas dealing with sound and colour etc). Hence Cross-Modality or Crossing Paths - With two artists working on the same piece it also involves not only the cross pollination of information but the loss of subjectivity, ego, perceived identity and so on. As with sensory information in the brain of a Synaesthete, we have allowed our information to cross and match, ignoring traditional boundaries of my and your space or information that should appear together or not. We traveled a more complex route and it was taxing on us both. Our work hopefully becomes one expression of an experience, whilst crossing the boundary of the experience of the one - Allowing the information to feed into something it normally wouldn’t. In a sense becoming richer and less concrete or absolute. Perhaps this reflects something that Synaesthesia teaches us? For me, this is in ackowledgement of the fragility of our individual truths (about the space in our case), and forces us to look anew. It has also been discombobulating for us as it has consistently confronted our experience of Self, perceived ownership (originality in art, materials, ideas in common, freedom, control), (personal) space on the page, (original) language and ego. A sublimation of the self!

Our paths of perception cross on the page. As such it cannot be a concrete representation of one event but remains continuous. A kind of chaos in which order can be found and dissolves again in the uncertainty of what is real.

Stating that the truth is repressed is based, of course, on the premise that we know the truth and repress this knowledge; in other words, that there is “unconscious knowledge.” My experience in psychoanalysis—of others and of myself—is that this is indeed true. We perceive reality, and we cannot help perceiving it. Just as our senses are organized to see, hear, smell, touch when we are brought together with reality, our reason is organized to recognize reality, i.e., to see things as they are, to perceive the

truth. I am not of course referring to the part of reality that requires scientific tools or methods in order to be perceived. I am referring to what is recognizable by concentrated “seeing,” especially the reality in ourselves and in others. - Erich Fromm - To Have or To Be 1976

EC 2013

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Nereid Study ALL by R Allen-Sherwood Felt tip, Chalk 2013

Nereid Study by EC 2013

Nereid Study Left by R Allen-Sherwood Felt tip, Ink wash 2013

Nereid Study by EC 2013

Nereid Study Mixed Sides by R Allen-Sherwood Charcoal 2013

Nereid Study by EC 2013

Nereid Left by R Allen-Sherwood Felt Tip, ink pen and wash 2013

Nereid Study by EC 2013

Nereid Right by R Allen-Sherwood ink pen, graphite and wash 2013

Nereid Study by EC 2013

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Three Nereids photo by R Allen-Sherwood 2013

RACHELLE’S NOTES & RESEARCH

In the neurological condition known as Synesthesia, the senses mesh together in such a way so that colors can be “heard” or forms “tasted”. These types of experiences have been well-documented with many case studies, including the experiences of well known synesthetes like novelist Vladamir Nabokov and the artist Wassily Kandinsky.

Due to my interest in the concepts of space and movement, I found working with EC on the Three Nerieds at the British Museum to be quite pertinent to my studio practice. The strong sense of movement I got from the ancient sculpture was almost palpable. But there was something else that helped pull it all together for me.

A few years ago, scientists in the US discovered a previously unknown form of synesthesia in which visual flashes or movements trigger perceptions of sound.

“In the autumn of 2008, neuroscientists Melissa Saenz and Christof Koch of The California Institute of Technology, confirmed the existence of Hearing-Motion Syneasthesia, this was published in various scientific journals and magazines in the Autumn of 2008.” Scientific American: Mind 2008

It is not my aim to go into technical descriptions of the condition, but, for me, I feel that Hearing -Motion Synaesthesia relates well with the Nerieids and our Synesthesia Project. I have tried to capture their sense of movement through a series of ink works as well as adding a mixture of photographs with a paltry attempt at “sound poetry” to illustrate the strong sense of sound/motion I associate with the Three Nereids.

As for the experience of working together on a collaborative piece, I think EC has described the intensity of it far better than I would be able to……if I add anything to her words, it would be that it has been a most intriguing and eye opening experience. Definitely not one for the faint of heart or spirit!

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A Photographic Experiment in Sound & Motion

by Rachelle Allen-Sherwood

Noise of the Nereids

BLUE-SWOOSH! Rippling
Aegean sea nymphs
swirling whirling free
protectors from catastrophies

Float-flitter-flutter-freeing
wind sailing through veils billowing

SHISH SHUSH
WHOOSTLE
BLUSH

Poseidon’s fifty progeny
from bluest depths
beneath me

I see
three Nereids
Swishing with a swastle,
Windy waves lashing over fossiled
feet
SISS
SLOSH
SPLISH
SPLOSH

Heart-achingly beautiful
saviours of the Argonauts
and the dutiful

Copyright R Allen-Sherwood 2013l

'Anxiety'. Synesthesia project – By Raj Kaur

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:20:39 +0100

Ink and pen on watercolour paper.

Darker colours, darker emotions. No one knows the turmoil inside the woman but herself. Loss, isolation and sadness, haunt her most at night when the dream state takes her to places where the emotions can’t be escaped. The memories of the pain witnessed replayed endlessly in ever inventive new guises. Here, there is no sense to her senses, and they are not her own.

Studies in Synaesthesia- Polly Bagnall

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:40:17 +0100

These small paintings coincided with the Fabelist group’s third project, Synaesthesia. ‘Studies in Synaesthesia’ aptly describes this recent work. As I have written elsewhere when I am looking, hearing or becoming aware of something external to myself I notice a physical response in my body- an inclination to move my shoulders, or bend my knees for example. A certain colour or sound can trigger a wish to respond with a particular physical gesture. I began to notice this process through my practice as a therapist. In the therapy room in order to understand what is happening with my clients I scrutinise my unconscious responses to what is being communicated. I might tense my shoulders, hold my breath or scrape my nail. And so too when I look at a tree or the colour of the sky or the sound of a car, I notice a wish to respond in my body. These ‘urges’ are translated into movements that can leave a mark, for example blowing pigment across the canvas, rubbing away with a rough cloth, cupping the palm of my hand.

I have been experimenting with working on a small scale. These finished paintings are markedly smaller than most of my recent work, which limits the scope of my movement. I am using fingers, hands, tongue, lips, palms instead of the movement of my legs and whole body.

‘Studies in Synaesthesia’ are in some ways a crossover from my previous landscape paintings in that they respond to my experience of the external world. My subjective response is translated through gestural marks rather than a visual representation. I am using acrylics and oil paints. The oil paints add an extra layer of texture and viscosity that the acrylic paints lack. The oil paint moves across the surface of the linen at different rates depending on the pigment, which appears to add to the dynamic potential of the mark. This compensates to some degree the range and variety of marks I could produce in my larger works. The colours I mix respond to the time of year, the weather, my mood. The gestures I use are a personal association I have with what enters my awareness. These ambient phenomena, outside and inside the studio, effect whether I choose to ‘push-up’ or ‘scrape’ or ‘lick’ or ‘wipe’ the painted mark. I start with preliminary sketches to roughly play with the balance of the composition. After this I let the gesture, the intention behind the movement I am using, to make the mark, to dictate what is communicated on the canvas. Seen in a series, a visual narrative begins to develop, even though the individual paintings are abstract.

As with my previous larger gestural paintings the intention behind a gesture is not always communicated in the visual mark. For example blowing the pigment did not create the soft breathy gesture I had hoped for, so for the purposes of the painting I didn’t use this technique. The challenge is to balance the authenticity of the movement with the demands of the painting.

Synaesthesia- Alice in Wonderland: Raj Kaur

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100

Ink and rotring pen on watercolour paper. Postcard sized art.

For the current ongoing project I am exploring the experiences of Alice during her journey through Wonderland. Her crazy journey through this multi-sensorial landscape have always fascinated me. I’m working with small, postcard sized watercolour paper, allowing me to create snapshots of the story, with the focus to be Alice, and her internal landscape, her experience, confusion and revelations. So far, I’m excited about the energy in these drawings and intend to complete a series of around 8 to showcase together.

sarah ives taylor - fragmentary

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 17:10:37 +0100

My mind’s not right.

It exploded one night

in a cacophony of voices and there’s

a veritable Chorus in there

commentating, weeping,

laughing, extrapolating.

Synaesthesia - Rachelle Allen Sherwood & EC

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:19:00 +0100

These are our first pieces exploring our collaboration for Synaesthesia. As well as our outings we are working at the Fabelist Tufnell Park Space. Thank you to Francesca Goodwin and all the Fabelists involved - you know who you are.

Rachelle and I have started this project by looking at the issues synaesthesia raises about Consciousness - A philosophical debate.

“Nature reveals herself through exceptions. Those objectivists who tried to dismiss synesthesia throughout history seem to have forgotten this maxim. Far from being a mere curiosity irrelevant to real questions, synesthesia turns out to illuminate a wide swath of mental life and forces us to rethink some fundamental issues regarding mind and brain.”
- Richard E. Cytowic

Left Nereid, Ink, Wash & Graphite on paper, Rachelle Allen Sherwood 2012

Centre Nereid, Oil-based pencil on A3 paper, EC 2012

Centre Nereid, Ink & Pen on A3 paper, EC 2012

Left Nereid, Ink, Wash & Graphite on paper, Rachelle Allen Sherwood 2012

Centre Nereid, Ink & Pen on A3 paper, EC 2012

Centre Nereid, Ink, Wash & Graphite on paper, Rachelle Allen Sherwood 2012

Right Nereid, Ink, Wash & Graphite on paper, Rachelle Allen Sherwood 2012

Below: Collaborative Piece in progress based on The Three Nereids at The British Museum.

This work starts to explore our differing subjective experiences of the ‘same object’.

Ink, Chalk, Graphite stick, Pencil, Carbon stick, Charcoal & Pen on Fabriano 200gsm, 5ft x 6ft approx, By Rachelle Allen Sherwood & EC

Zoe Catherine Kendall - The Sensual Body

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:25:00 +0100

An Interpretation of Synaesthesia and The Senses.

Perhaps controversially, I have decided to explore the sensuality and heightened sensory awareness that can occur during an intimate, sexual encounter. This involves the anticipation of something, the tension between participants or the tension across a stretched surface of skin. Perhaps even more controversially, I am exploring the heightened tension and sensory experience involved in BDSM.

I have been experimenting in the studio for a couple months, deciding the best way to approach the subject. As usual I am interested in text as well as visual imagery. I will attempt to use both of these methods in unison.

In order to increase the sensory and synaesthetic experience, I am collaborating with composer and musician Eunseog Lee who will be contributing to the tension, aprehension and the sense of restraint and response using chords and melodies on the piano forte.

I want the listening viewer to be left with an idea of this act for two in their mind, I want to invite them into the sensory experience, to create the atmosphere and the mood…

My visual imagery identifies with a female persona, a muse, an object of desire. Her subjugation perversely translates into her own desire, desire which resides just beyond reach. The result is a very interesting dynamic between two. However, with only the submissive side portrayed, a space is left open for the viewer to step into the role of protagonist. If this role is not comfortable, the viewer may default to bystander, voyeur or choose to relate to the female muse.

Her body and pose reveal tension and alertness. Her attention is focused as if only aware of her confined anticipation for another’s will to be acted out and the following sensory reaction to occur: the sensations of pain, pleasure and physical release. Moreover the psychological release as her mind wanders from a vision of herself toward elements of sound, light, taste, colour and friction.

Her body is under stress, it is tense, taut, stretched out. I have been experimenting with oil paint on cotton. The fabric is unprimed so that the paint seaps in and the materiality remains fluid. For me, the cotton represents skin, flesh. I can stretch it to hang it and I can play with this tautness of the fabric to imply degrees of strain.

On the cotton, the viewer sees a painted image of her body emerging from the darkness into a pool of light. It is as if nothing else exists, all eyes, all ears, all awareness is pointed at her or located in her body. All other reality is momentarily suspended. All senses are gathered and bound together. This scene is furnished with hers and your full attention.

The black brush strokes surrounding the female are evocative of the lines a whip might leave across the skin or the shape and movement they would make as they travelled through the air around her body.

The Images which follow include the paintings described above, as well as other experimental work I’ve been trying out for the theme.

sarah ives taylor - fragmentary

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 16:39:02 +0100

and he’s all up in my shit and calling it spiritual

Oh Christ, this time he’s really waxing lyrical

Singapore senses: Fact #1 - Nicola Anthony

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 06:13:03 +0100

During my work on senses & synaesthesia, I have decided to share my sensory observations of the new world around me.

When you come inside from the hot air, and open up your bag or suitcase inside the cool crispness of the indoors, a cloud of warmth seems to have nestled inside it - It feels like opening up a wrapper containing a freshly-baked warm loaf of bread.

It reminds me of how, wherever we go, we are always carrying a little parcel of the last place we encountered, somewhere in our minds, memories or suitcases.

The Singapore Senses Facts can be found here. During my work on senses & synaesthesia, I have decided to share my sensory observations of the new world around me.

by Nicola Anthony

Sarah Ives Taylor - A fragment, or poem piece - Shaman/Loveless

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:44:17 +0100

I am a shaman.

The light turns blue in this

hue of morning and morning-

wanderings.

There was a manner of reaching out to touch

your hands and grasp your face,

but it has fallen away like

Eurydice

into the dank and mouldering

foliage like intrepid vines, not

a heaven, or a hell,

something more

elemental.

You are elemental.

Leszek Blyszczynski - I had no dream

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:17:46 +0100

I am a new amongst Fabelist and ‘Synaesthesia and the Senses’ is my first project here. I found that theme very interesting and creative. I ve started preparing series of pictures ‘I had no dream’. It all started with the read article about ‘How the Blind Dream’ http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/how-the-blind-dream/ . It says that blind people do dream. What they see in their dreams depends on how much they could ever see. If someone has been totally blind since birth, they only have auditory dreams but in their dreams they can speak, listen, feel, smell, taste, etc. Those who have lost their sight at a later age (7 or 8 years) can at first dream with visual images, but they begin to lose these images as time goes by. Those who have lost their sight at an adult age usually can dream some days with visual images, and other days without them. My goal is to create a series of works that are abstract visualization of dreams and at the same time due to the texture will get to the blind.

please comment

Nicola Anthony - Seeing Time: Sketch I’ve been playing...

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:39:54 +0100

Nicola Anthony - Seeing Time: Sketch

I’ve been playing around with ideas of seeing time physically or as a colour. A friend of mine sees Days of the week as specific colours in a syneasthetic response. This lady is being seen as time - an abundance of time or an abundance of appointments, you decide.

This sketch is also carrying on from work with my exchange with artist Sandra Mack, from the New York tART collective. We both found it hard to do the exchange properly as life got in the way and time was sort. So we made sketches as a response to why we couldnt finish our exchange initially.

Nicola Anthony

ecstatic energy Abigail Box the third in a series of explosion...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:58:05 +0100

ecstatic energy

Abigail Box

the third in a series of explosion paintings which have been painted from video screen shots of both real explosions and explosions from computer games. I like the dialogue between them and I’m interested in how life like the computer generated explosions can be whilst being quite abstract but the primary reason for using these images is for how exciting they are visually. The paintings themselves are abstractions of the original images because what is being painted here is not as important as how it is painted.

alt. Abigail Box The second in a series of explosion paintings...

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 21:56:00 +0100

alt.

Abigail Box

The second in a series of explosion paintings which have been painted from video screen shots of both real explosions and explosions from computer games. I like the dialogue between them and I’m interested in how life like the computer generated explosions can be whilst being quite abstract but the primary reason for using these images is for how exciting they are visually. The paintings themselves are abstractions of the original images because what is being painted here is not as important as how it is painted.