Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Lacanian mirror


    Check out this piece of work!  Officially my first completed art project for A&M's grad Visualization program.  The Lacanian Mirror refers to the works of Lacan, who believes in 3 stages of mental process named the Imaginary. the Symbolic, and the Real.  The descriptions of these are completely different than what you think they are.  This work represents the imaginary, which Lacan describes adeptly with the example  of a baby first realizing that its reflection in the mirror is itself, but not having the mental capacity to realize that its reflection is just an image of itself, and not literally itself.  The imaginary exists in the realm of intuition, the unbridled underlying emotions that drive us before we process what they are and what they mean. 
    This piece reflects the emotion of a human being viewing itself within a space in the world, much as the baby would.  I chose to do this medium because it creates the illusion of a 3D space by a combination of transparent flat 2D cross-sections, and the fact that the image is not understandable from all angles.  I hope to create the sensation of realization and mystery as the viewer comes around the piece and ultimately comprehends the image, yet still being deceived by the illusion of 3D reality, much as the infant sees itself in the world but does not understand the separation.
    Hopefully this piece will be accepted into a show sometime soon and you all can see it in action!  But for now I hope you enjoy these images :)