Visualizing Subjective Perception through Illustrations of
Polarized Concept: entry vs. exit
A Thesis
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts
In the Graduate School of
The Ohio State University
By
Eunkyoung Lee
* * * * *
The Ohio State University
2004
Master’s Examination Committee:
Dr. Midori Kitagawa, Adviser
Tony Mendoza
Approved by
___________________________
Adviser
Dr. Wayne Carlson
Amy Youngs
Department of Art
©
Copyright
by Eunkyoung Lee
2004
ABSTRACT
This thesis dissertation describes the creative process of
the animation film “Enclosure #2” which I created during my MFA
candidacy. The motivating factor behind the animation is my own
experience and struggle in discovering my cultural identity. The
means I chose to employ my vision is through subjective
perception. The paper is divided into six chapters. In chapter 1,
I introduce the concept behind the artwork. In chapter 2, I
describe the storyline of the animation and discuss other
artists' work and their influence on my creative process. In
chapters 3 to 5, I present how concepts are contextualized in the
three scenes from my animation (Aqua Room, Trans House, and
Cemetery), and discuss artistic influence in conjunction with
these. In the last chapter, I conclude with denoting my personal
intention in the animation.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Midori Kitagawa who
provided me great artistic insights and has been such a great
role model - both as an artist and a scholar, Dr. Wayne Carlson
who endured my endless questioning, consulted many of my
problems, and made me proud of being an ACCADian, Professor Tony
Mendoza who unconditionally encouraged my work, and inspired me
to improve artistic and aesthetic aspects of my work, and
Professor Amy Youngs who provided critical viewpoints, and
constantly enlightened me to be more innovative.
My special thanks go to my parents who have provided me
with invaluable support, my brother Dr. Sang Eun Lee and my
sister-in-law, Dr. Eun Yong Shim, who have been intellectual
inspiration ever since I began learning the alphabet, Scott V.
Swearingen who always helped me organize and review the scope of
my thesis work, and Dr. Edwina Carreon for reviewing my writing
with deep critical analysis.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Matt
Lewis and Director of ACCAD, Maria Palazzi, who supported and
encouraged me intellectually, technically, and mentally. Both
have been my mentors while studying and living at ACCAD.
iii
Also, I thank Matt Derksen, Vita Berezina- Blackburn, Jun
Oh, Brian Ireson, Jean Haluska, Min Hyung Lee, Who Jeong Lee,
Ryan English, Hyun-Jung Chae, Rob Gordon, Peter Stuart, Todd
Delman, Jenny Macy, Eric Farrar, Tyler Ayres, Elaine Smith, Aline
Davis, Cathy Ellis, Donna Boggs, Marthe Grohman, and all my peers
from the Art and Technology Department and ACCAD (Advanced
Computing Center for the Arts and Design), who have continuously
provided both aesthetic and technical critiques of my animation.
iv
VITA
February 20, 1973 ……………………………………………………………………… Born – Seoul, Korea
1991- 1995 ………………………………………………………………………………………… Bachelor of Science
Majoring in Chemistry,
Sung Shin women’s University, Korea
1997- 2000 ……………………………………………………………………………………… Bachelor of Fine Art
Majoring in Computer Art,
Savannah College of Art and Design
2001-2003 …………………………………………………………………………… The Ohio State University
Graduate Teaching Associate
2003-2004 …………………………………………………………………………… The Ohio State University
Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design,
Graduate Research Associate
Field of Study: Art
Major Field: Art and Technology
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT ...................................................... II
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ............................................... III
VITA ........................................................... V
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................. VI
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................. VII
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION ....................................... 1
CHAPTER 2
ENCLOSURE #2 ....................................... 4
CHAPTER 3
AQUA ROOM ......................................... 15
CHAPTER 4
TRANS HOUSE ....................................... 20
CHAPTER 5
CEMETERY .......................................... 28
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION ........................................ 35
END NOTES ..................................................... 37
LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................ 39
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
1. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 1, SHOT 1- AQUA ROOM ......................... 4
2. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 1, SHOT 2- AQUA ROOM ......................... 5
3. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 2, SHOT 1- TRANS HOUSE........................ 6
4. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 2, SHOT 2- TRANS HOUSE........................ 7
5. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 2, SHOT 4- TRANS HOUSE........................ 8
6. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 3- CEMETERY ................................. 9
7. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 5, SHOT 3- TRANS HOUSE....................... 10
8. DUANE MICHALS, THINGS ARE QUEER (1973) .......................... 12
9. DUANE MICHALS, THINGS ARE QUEER (1973) .......................... 12
10. TOM STOPPARD, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, (1966) ........ 14
11. JOACHIM PATINIR, CHARON’S BOAT (1515-24) ....................... 16
12. SCOTT MUTTER, UNTITLED: FOREST (1944) .......................... 19
13. KOREAN HOUSE AND MODELING, AND TEXTURE IN MAYA ..................... 20
14. KOREAN WINDOW PATTERN DESIGN AND MODELING IN MAYA .................. 21
15. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 2, SHOT 3- TRANS HOUSE....................... 22
16. CREDITS UNKNOWN ............................................... 23
17. ENCLOSURE #2, SCENE 2, SHOT 3- TRANS HOUSE....................... 24
18. M.C. ESCHER, STILL LIFE AND STREET (1937) ....................... 26
19. M.C. ESCHER, HAND WITH REFLECTING SPHERE (1935) .................. 27
vii
20. ALBERT RENGER-PATZSCH, BUCHENWALD IN FALL (1936) ................. 29
21. MAGDALENA ABAKANOWICZ, BACKS (1976-82) .......................... 31
22. DONALD JUDD, UNTITLED (1975) .................................. 32
23. COLOR TEMPERTATURE OF DIFFERENT LIGHT SOURCES ...................... 33
viii
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Globalization has had an extraordinary impact not only upon
economies but also upon cultures across the globe. Products from
Coca-Cola to Hollywood movies, and ideas from human rights to
ideals of beauty intrude everywhere. As isolated cultures in
today’s world are disappearing, they are caught up in the global
interchange: one that is one-sided as well as many-sided, and
dialectical [1]. Due to frequent interaction with other cultures,
exposure to different religions, and acceptance of diverse
philosophies, the question of cultural identity becomes
problematic and takes on new urgency. Where is my cultural home?
Where is my origin of philosophy?
While a Christian, born and raised in South Korea, I was
influenced by Confucianism, Buddism, and Taoism as they defined
the asian philosophies and culture I was living in. Seven years
ago, I moved away from the place of my original culture and began
the process of adapting to another culture. As I broadened my
perceptions, I noticed differences and similarities between the
two cultures. I learned a whole new set of culturally and
linguistically defined rules and value systems while my own
1
perceptions of the culturally induced life experience was
expanding.
As a visual artist, this struggle to discover my cultural
identity motivates my artwork. The means to which I visualize my
subject matter (polarized concepts representing polarized
cultures with a focus on their intersections) is subjective
perception: subjectivity meaning that “persons differ from all
other things in that they cannot be exhaustively described in the
third person” [2]. Perception is not a passive, objective, or
neutral process. Every perception is seen as an active process.
"What is perceived is becoming part of the subjective experience,
embedded into the whole of the personality structure of that
person, including whatever the person's development process, his
cultural and material environment has given him or her as ways of
thinking and viewing things” [3].
In “Enclosure #2”, I respectively juxtaposed the following
polarized concept - exit and entry. I visualized the
intersections of the polarized subject matter, which acts as a
metaphor of the intersection between two different cultures –
East and West. I pursued to depict this intersection, believing
it to be the way of understanding how two different cultures are
basically adjoined, inseparable, and non-linearly connected.
Literally, “exit” means a passage or way out, and
“entrance” means door or gate for entering [4]. On the
supposition that there are two adjoined spaces, one can enter
space 'A' through an entrance, while exiting space 'B'.
2
Likewise, one can enter space 'B' while exiting space 'A'. Hence
the definition of entering and exiting between two spaces becomes
subjective. The mutual interaction between the spaces 'A' and 'B'
provides a progression from one to another, making it difficult
to pinpoint the origin or end. This idea brought about a
conclusion of non-linear progress. With illusionary transitions,
I portray the line between internal and external
indistinguishable in the 3d animation “Enclosure#2”.
In this paper, I introduce the storyline of the animation
film as well as the creative process of it. Furthermore, I
discuss how I created and organized the integral metaphors of
subject, color, material, and design within the artwork. The
metaphors that I created in the artwork are directly and
indirectly hypothesized under the supposition that those
polarized concepts are essentially connected.
3
CHAPTER 2
ENCLOSURE #2
“Enclosure #2” consists of three main scenes: Aqua-Room
(Figure 1, 2, 3), Trans-House (Figure 4, 5, 6), and Cemetery
(Figure 7, 8). The prologue begins with the sound of water
drumming a metal surface, unleashing artificially intelligent
(AI) fish swimming freely under the ocean (Figure 1).
Figure 1 Enclosure #2, Scene 1, shot 1- Aqua Room
4
As the camera calmly zooms out to reveal more of the space to the
viewers, it reveals the stage as a non-descriptive room- Aqua
Room, not the ocean (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Enclosure #2, Scene 1, shot 2- Aqua Room
The camera continues zooming out linearly and presents a
generic bedroom environment consisting of picture frames, lamps,
a bed, a closet, books and a bookcase. Glowing seaweed hangs from
an invisible ceiling as it sways in the water while AI fish swim
and interact with the environment. The caustic pattern dances
across the surface with the rhythmic sound of drumming water.
5
When the drumming sound of water slowly fades into an
engaging ambient noise, the scene moves to another stage. (Figure
3) The camera passes through an open window and exits the Aqua
room, which also serves as an entry to the Trans-House.
Figure 3 Enclosure #2, Scene 2, shot 1- Trans House
The aqua room fades out in the distance and the view to the
room gets blocked by a mirrored surface reflecting the next room
where the camera will move to. A glimmer of blue light beams
through cracked walls and a water puddle on the floor function as
the remainder of the previous event as well as a hint of the next
event.
6
While the camera progresses to the next room, the color of
the lighting and atmosphere moves from blue, dark, and confined
to yellow, bright, and sunny. (Figure 4) This room is full of
progressive content: never ending staircases, an indefinable
light source, and linearly stretched floor panels. The previous
room is again blocked by another mirrored surface as the camera
hides behind the steps.
Figure 4 Enclosure #2, Scene 2, shot 2- Trans House
After continuously zooming out, the camera slows down to
enter a room where extreme reflections deceive the viewers’
spatial understanding. (Figure 5) The ceiling and side walls
display multiple reflections like two mirrors facing one another.
7
Hanging bulbs turn on and off, revealing and concealing these
reflections. This decorative space begins by providing the viewer
with wonder and pleasure. However, as the camera moves more
dynamically to avoid these hanging obstacles, the reflected
surfaces portray oversized, disfigured, and distorted images of
the previous room, the present, and the next room. Meanwhile, the
sound of drumming water becomes louder and louder to emphasize
the climax.
Figure 5 Enclosure #2, Scene 2, shot 4- Trans House
8
As the reflected surfaces give way to hinting at outdoor
environments, the camera unhurriedly guides the viewer to another
scene, the Cemetery (Figure 6).
Cemetery is not a typical, frightening and dark symbol
here. Rather, it symbolizes an ending as well as a beginning.
Aligned tombstones and spiral plants appear with ambiguous
lighting and an indistinguishable sky.
Figure 6 Enclosure #2, Scene 3- Cemetery
While the camera slowly zooms into a puddle it seems to
find, fish reappear within the reflected surface on the ground,
which transitions into the beginning Aqua-room, and the second
loop begins.
9
By displaying the illusionary transition between ocean,
rooms, passages, and the cemetery, I describe the line between
the internal and external of two adjoined spaces
indistinguishable. Thus, I visualize subjective perception
between interior and exterior. The mutual interaction between two
adjoined spaces provides a progression from one to another,
making it difficult to pinpoint the origin or end. The looping
animation portrays the endless setup of the story.
Figure 7 Enclosure #2, Scene 5, shot 3- Trans House
In the next loop, the camera pulls out while revealing
other sides of the room. (Figure 7) Even if similarities between
the first and second loop are contemplated as identical,
10
Enclosure #2 implies associations between opposite sides of the
universe. No camera cuts exist in the entire animation.
The looping setup was motivated by the photographer Duane
Michals, who produced photographic work in several genres during
his career. His best-known work involves narrative photographic
sequences that focused on mostly spiritual or existential motifs.
In his piece, Things are Queer (Figure 8 and 9), by aligning
looping sequential photographs, he claims the world is queer,
under the belief that the world is only known through
representations, whose meanings are always relative and a matter
of relationships and constructions. Michals chose humble tools to
author his tales. A camera, models, a simple background, a
straightforward formalized narrative structure, and a few optical
tricks become transformed into works of great emotional depth and
impact. Duane Michals portrays a spiritual connection between
what is hidden and exposed through numerous books, poems, and
photographs. [5]
11
Figure 8 Duane Michals, Things are Queer (1973)
I am fascinated by his work, motivation, and technically
perfected loops. By providing enough information to push viewers
towards imagining and understanding this unbelievable connection
between the beginning and the end, viewers participate entirely
without any obstruction.
Figure 9 Duane Michals, Things are Queer (1973)
12
Another conceptual influence is the playwright Tom
Stoppard. He says, "Every exit is an entry to somewhere else.”
His plots tend to be difficult to pin down in terms of beginningmiddle-end summations. [6]
In his famous play, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”
(Figure 10), through a delightful romp of word play and literary
allusion, the real and unreal are intertwined. Stoppard uses two
minor characters of Hamlet and views the Shakespearean play
through their eyes. The play is mainly concerned with
existentialism and the inability to take action, and keeps
readers confused as there is no definite line between reality and
fiction [6]. I refer to this as “subjective perception”.
13
Figure 10 Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, (1966)
14
CHAPTER 3
AQUA ROOM
The main subject of Aqua Room is water. Although it is not
visibly displayed within the shot, the presence of water is
revealed through the drumming sound of dripping water and caustic
patterns on the geometric surfaces.
Water has often been shown or indicated in the form of a
symbol or stylized in some way. (Figure 11) Artists represent the
many attributes of water literally, metaphorically, symbolically,
or allegorically in mythology, religion, and folklore. When
Egyptian artists wished to indicate a volume or body of water,
such as a lake or a pool or the primeval ocean, the zigzag line
is placed vertically and duplicated creating an evenly spaced
pattern. In early mystical lore, water and green were considered
synonymous because water was believed to typify the earliest form
of the soul or generative essence. Since ancient times, art has
served “water cults” by contributing images that personify both
the physical and metaphysical aspects of water and the numerous
water divinities. Female water divinities have received
particular attention from artists, an interest which has evolved
into a certain pre-occupation with women bathing. Artists have
15
also played an important role in conveying in visual terms belief
in the sacredness of water. [7]
Figure 11 Joachim Patinir, Charon’s Boat (1515-24)
The physical structure of water (as a liquid) consists of
aggregates of water molecules that form and re-form continually.
Also, the water molecule is not linear but bent in a unique way.
As a result, part of the molecule is negatively charged while the
other positively charged. Due to this transformable and bilateral
nature, water has been interpreted symbolically as death and life
as well as past and future. In the Koran are the words "We have
created every living thing from water".
In ancient Greece, it
was believed that the newly dead, before they were reborn, drank
the water of the river Lethe (meaning "oblivion"), a waterway
into the underworld, so they lose all memory of their past
16
existence. In Book X of Plato's The Republic, in the last step
before rebirth into their new, self-chosen life on earth, the
dead must drink from the "stream of Oblivion". [8]
Accordingly, I employ the transformable and bilateral
properties of water to adjoin two different spaces- the
underwater and bedroom meet unbeseemingly as I imply their
connection and bond with each other. In addition, the cyclical
nature of water symbolically enlightens viewers that the Aqua
room will serve not only as a beginning but also an ending of the
animation.
The motion of the fish is neither keyframed, nor scripted.
The fish’s AI was programmed by several computer science major
graduate students, Tim Daoust, Peter Stuart, Keith Ruston and
Sean X. Chang, using MEL (Maya Embedded Language). They created
self-animating, autonomous agents which emulate the realistic
appearance, movement, and behavior of individual fish, as well as
the patterns of social behavior evident in groups of fish.[9]
Initially they started with implementing visibility routines to
fish, the ability of determining main architecture, collision
avoidance routines, Wander Behavior Controller, Predator
Interaction Controller, and Flee Behavior Controller. [10]
To implement these behaviors to the fish in Alias|Wavefront
Maya, they created six attributes: MaxSpeed, Speed, Bravery,
FearFactor, ViewDistance, and hunger. By applying three MEL
scripts, GoFish.mel, EditFishProperties.mel, and visible.mel, it
17
creates a curve or path for each fish to follow. Then, I
attribute behaviors to each fish and they start swimming
accordingly with other school of fish.
MaxSpeed is the fastest speed that the fish will ever
travel. The fish usually decides to travel some fractional value
of this speed, so it has a large effect on the fish’s overall
movement. Speed is the current speed of a given fish. This value
changes throughout the simulation. At any given time during the
animation, calculations represent the speed the fish has decided
to travel during the last frame. [10]
Bravery determines how close a prey fish will get to a
predator fish.
Fish with high bravery will continue to eat,
flock, and wander etc. at closer distances to the predator than
fish with a low bravery. ViewDistance is how far away a fish can
see objects (and obstacles) in the scene. Fish with a low value
will appear to be blind, dodging obstacles at the last second,
and not notice predators. FearFactor is used primarily for
predator fish.
It determines how scared prey fish are of the
predator. Also, hunger is how aggressively the predator fish
chases and hunts prey fish. Likewise, softbody dynamics of
seaweed movement is procedurally simulated, rather than manually
keyframed. [10]
Photographs by Scott Mutter have been one of the biggest
influences on Aqua room. Mutter creates worlds that can best be
described as hyper-realistic. (Figure 12) Always on the edge of
Mutter's works is an eerie, apocalyptic feeling. This aura comes
18
from Mutter's interest in the two forces that act upon human
beings: the natural world and the world that humans have built
around themselves. Mutter achieves the element of surprise by
melting antithetical images together in a realistic way, so that
the eye accepts what the head doubts.
Figure 12 Scott Mutter, Untitled: Forest (1944)
Like Mutter, by juxtaposing a mimicked natural world with
simulated schools of fish, I render two different worlds that
exist and interact harmoniously.
19
CHAPTER 4
TRANS HOUSE
The basic design of Trans House was motivated by patterns
in Korean houses, which appear in windows, roofs, walls, and
props. (Figure 13, 14)
Figure 13 Korean house and modeling, and texture in Maya
20
According to the structure of Korean houses, each room is
linearly connected and repeated with the same pattern. The style
of Korean houses is found in their geometrical design and
decorated textures. Accordingly, I employed these characteristics
to assist the camera movement which linearly zooms out to the
last house.
Figure 14 Korean window pattern design and modeling in Maya
21
An unconventional element in Trans House is multiple
reflected surfaces, which is almost mirror- like. (Figure 15)
Those surfaces encompass the previous event while revealing the
next event. Reflection often tricks our eyes and confuses our
spatial understanding of where we are. Through this, I intended
to reveal the previous and following rooms, not only physically,
but also mentally as memories. In addition, each transition in
Trans House represents time passing from morning to night as well
as the seasonal changes from spring to winter, even if it is
through subtle and stealthy illustration.
Figure 15 Enclosure #2, Scene 2, shot 3- Trans House
22
Overlapping and transparencies would be other useful visual
techniques like reflection to make an unclear spatial pattern.
Many artists have chosen to use transparency as it does not give
us a clear spatial pattern and confuses depth. As in figure 16,
when the two forms are overlapped and both are seen as complete,
the figures are assumed to be transparent and this purposeful
ambiguity is called equivocal space. [11] Transparency with
overlapped images does not give us a clear spatial pattern.
Viewers become unsure of which form is on top and behind.
Figure 16 credits unknown
In the last room of Trans House, I overlapped three layers
of side walls and applied transparency and reflection maps to
them so that they assist the spatial illusion. The bulbs are
positioned in between each wall while they generate multiple
transparent and reflected images. (Figure 17)
23
Figure 17 Enclosure #2, Scene 2, shot 3- Trans House
There are several artists and artworks that influenced this
scene while I developed the concept, metaphor, and the process of
its very production. However, the strongest inspiration was M.C.
Escher and his artworks. I am interested in his work which deals
with mirror images, inversion, the conflict between the flat and
the spatial, and relativities.
He said “I cannot refrain from demonstrating the
nonsensicalness of some of what we take to be irrefutable
certainties.” This central concept which Escher captured is that
of self-reference, which many believe lies near the heart of the
enigma of consciousness. On a deeper level, self-reference is
24
found in the way our worlds of perception reflect and intersect
one another. [12]
Escher creates a feeling for the conventional foundations
of visual reality while hand in hand with profound awareness of
the subjective dimension of every perception, an absurdist sense
of humor and an eager gazing at nature and architecture. [12] In
his painting “Still Life and Street” (1937), he added a number of
details such as reflection on the pot in the center and textures
on the books in order to enhance the convincible portrayal of
reality as well as extreme paradoxes of our perception. (Figure
18)
C.H. Broos said in his article, “M.C. Escher”, “A Child who
looks into a mirror for the first time is surprised when he
notices that the world behind the mirror, which looks so real, is
actually “intangible”; however, he soon creases to consider this
false reality as being strange. In the course of time the
surprise disappears, at least, for most people. For them a mirror
is merely a tool, used to help them to see themselves as others
see them.” [13] To Escher, however, the mirror image was not
ordinary matter. He was particularly fascinated by the mixture of
reality (the mirror itself and everything surrounding it) with
the other reality (the reflection in the mirror). (Figure 19)
25
Figure 18 M.C. Escher, Still Life and Street (1937)
26
Figure 19 M.C. Escher, Hand with reflecting sphere (1935)
27
CHAPTER 5
CEMETERY
The main design concept of the cemetery scene is
repetition. Repetitive tombstones and spiral plants represent an
infinite cycle. Repetitive patterns appear throughout the entire
animation, for example, the schools of fish in Aqua Room, the
looping animation, continuous Trans House passages, and linear
camera movement. However, the concept of repetition within
Cemetery is more emphasized to denote the scene as the beginning
and ending of the animation.
A valuable and widely used device for achieving visual
unity is repetition. As the term implies, something simply
repeats in various parts of the design to relate the parts to
each other. Repetition produces rhythm and rhythm creates motion.
[14] Like Patzsch’s photograph (Figure 20), the concept refers to
the movement of the viewer’s eye, a movement across recurrent
motifs, providing the repetition inherent in the idea of rhythm.
28
Thus, multiple tombstones without animation generate
movement and this implied motion is intended to be portrayed as
celebration. Even if our preconceptions view cemeteries as sad
and tragic places, I tend to interpret them as celebrations of
life as well as preparation for a new beginning.
Figure 20 Albert Renger-Patzsch, Buchenwald in Fall (1936)
Magdalena Abakanowicz states, "A crowd of people, birds,
insects, or leaves is a mysterious assemblage of variants of a
certain prototype. (Figure 21) It is a riddle of nature's
abhorrence of exact repetition or inability to produce it. Just
as the human hand cannot repeat its own gesture, I invoke this
29
disturbing law, switching my own immobile herds into that
rhythm." [15]
Repetition and multiplication produce a de-characterization
of individuals. According to Gestalt theory, a "Gestalt" is an
integrated whole system with its parts enmeshed. The whole is
greater than just the sum of its parts. [16] To emphasize the
meaning of the cemetery rather than individual death, I placed
repetitive tombstones close to one another in a symmetrical
arrangement so that viewers read the scene as the exit to the end
of the animation without a preconception of death.
30
Figure 21 Magdalena Abakanowicz, backs (1976-82)
I have viewed Donald Judd’s focus on the relationship
between the viewers and the sculpture itself as one of the
central preoccupations of his work. He uses simple arithmetic and
proportion to establish a relationship between the physical
presence of the sculpture and the viewer. (Figure 22) He
developed simple rules which involved establishing and
31
reinforcing symmetry through axial alignment. He considered
proportion, achieving balance through a harmony of structure,
scale, and material.
Figure 22 Donald Judd, Untitled (1975)
Judd and other Minimalists sought to create depersonalized
art in which the physical properties of space, scale, and
materials were explored as phenomena of interest to their own,
rather than as metaphors for human experience. [17]
32
Figure 23 Color Temperatures of Different Light Sources [18]
I considered this phenomenon while creating the lighting
setup within this scene. As we observe the temperature of
sunlight, sunset and sunrise have the same color temperature.
(Figure 23) Light in sunset and sunrise appears similarly as
2000K-3000K, however, the meaning of each time is opposite.
Sunset closes the day while sunrise opens the next. Likewise I
33
tend to create an ambiguous time of a day which is difficult to
distinguish between beginning and end.
34
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION
For seven years, to survive in another country under a
different culture, I had to adapt consciously and subconsciously.
However, this process forced me to question myself, where I am,
and how to identify myself. Struggling to find the answer to
those questions led me to visualize my thoughts first, and
finally gave birth to my animation.
Notions, common beliefs, preconception, experience, and
education are the greatest obstacles we face when trying to see
things open-mindedly. I did not try to portray a mere
surrealistic mood and an aesthetically pleasing picture in
Enclosure #2. I hope it will enlighten us in what we know and
what we see.
M.C. Escher said “Are you sure that a floor cannot be also
being a ceiling? Are you absolutely certain that you go up when
you walk up a staircase? Can you be definite that it is
impossible to eat your cake and have it? I ask these seemingly
crazy questions first of all of myself.” Like Escher, I have
looked at life with various perspectives while betting on many
35
outcomes. Enclosure #2 visualized the possibilities behind
subjective perception while leaving the resolve up to the
audience.
36
END NOTES
1. Dahl, Stephan. “Communications and Culture Transformation”,
Cultural Diversity, Globalization and Cultural Convergence (2001)
2. van Hoof, Anne; Raaijmakers, Quinten A. W. “The spatial
integration of adolescent identity: Its relation to age,
education, and subjective well–being” Scandinavian Journal of
Psychology Volume: 43, Issue: 3 (2002) pp. 201-212.
3. Sousa, Ronald de. “Twelve Varieties of Subjectivity: Dividing
in Hopes of Conquest”,
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~sousa/subjectivity.html (2003)
4. Webster, Merriam. The Merriam Webster Dictionary, MerriamWebster Inc. (1997)
5. Weinberg, Jonathan. “Speaking for Vice: Homosexuality in the
Art of Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and the First American
Avant-Garde” New Haven: Yale University Press (1993).
6. Berry, Michael. “TRAVESTIES: The Stagecraft of Tom Stoppard”
(2004)
7. Witcombe, Chris. “H2O- The Mystery, Art, and Science of
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