Introduction

How has the concept of illusion been depicted throughout art?

Modern philosopher Stephen Law writes "we are prisoners within our own minds", this may be considered true according to platonic philosophy which suggests that what we experience is a shadow of what exists on the peripheral. This point of view has been criticised by many although it has been found, through psychological studies, that our perception of 'reality' is influenced by what we have learned therefore suggesting that there may be a truth beyond what is merely superficial.  I will be investigating such philosophical premises and how they have been represented through art.

Many believe that we perceive reality purely through sense experience; however there have been many occasions were we have been deceived by our senses. For example, the way we perceive colour is dependent upon it’s context.

The image on the right is an effective example of how human perception is easily manipulated, it is apparent that squares ‘A’ and ‘B’ are different shades of grey, however this is not the case. In fact the shadow that is cast over square ‘B’ gives the impression that it is different. If one were to remove the shadow or alter the context of the colours they would see that square ‘A’ and ‘B’ are exactly the same. The reason for this being the human brain is interpreting the environment all the time, by trying to make sense of random bits of information, this makes our perceptions unreliable.

This is an excerpt from the BBC Two documentary 'Horizon', as it can be seen, our senses have failed us once again.


Our previous experiences also shape our judgement of the environment, this is something psychologists call ‘projection’ – we project our thoughts onto our environment thus causing the illusion ourselves. From an early age we are conditioned to have certain beliefs, or ideas, about how our environment should be perceived and how we should perceive ourselves. These ideas vary from person to person; from culture to culture therefore there is no objective reality showing that we are all experiencing an illusion, to some extent, however we may not all experience the same illusion!

 

 If our judgement is so easily manipulated as such, are we ever able to experience true reality?

Argument From Illusion

Argument From Illusion

This idea of perception offering an illusionary reality has been explored in philosophy through 'The Argument From Illusion'. This is almost a scientific approach as it alludes to our perception through 'sense data' - So we measure reality through our senses. The sense data theory was held by many 20th century philosophers - most notably Bertrand Russell and A.J Ayer. 

This is demonstrated through the analogy of refraction:

- When we view a stick that is half submerged in water we can see that the light causes it to refract, which makes it appear bent - HOWEVER we are aware that this is only an illusion. 

- When we take the stick out of the water we see that it is straight again - But how do we know this is reality?

-  The argument from illusion suggests that because human perception can be so easily manipulated it is impossible to tell reality from illusion. 

Many ancient philosophers have pondered on the premise of reality and illusion, including Plato.

 In his theory of the forms, philosopher, Plato suggested that what we experience in the 'physical world' is a shadow of what exists in the 'realm of forms'. The realm of forms is an external reality where every form of existence is infinite although it can only perceived after death. Plato goes on to explain that objects in the physical world can never be perfect as they are susceptible to change, he explains this through his 'allegory of the cave' which suggests that we are 'conditioned' to interpret our environment as true reality when this may not be the case.

'Plato's Cave':A Painting by Ken Stout (2007)

Imagery	Meaning
1.    There are three prisoners who have lived in a cave all their lives.	This represents human beings in the universe.
2.    They do not know about life outside of the cave and can only see shadows on the cave walls.	This represents our limited senses.
3.    These shadows are projected by  fire that burns behind them.	This represents 'projections' of the mind. Almost as if the fire is the 'cause' and the Shadow is the 'effect'.
4.    One day one of the prisoners manages to escape the cave.	This represents death or escape from the 'physical world' to the 'realm of forms' where everything is infinite and perfect.
5.    The escaped prisoner finally realises that he has been fooled, and is blinded by the sun.	This represents 'enlightenment of knowledge'.
6.    The escaped prisoner goes back to tell the others however they do not believe him.	This represents the limited senses of those who have not been 'enlightened'.

(Source(s): http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sense-data/)

Famous Illusions

Famous Illusions

For centuries magicians have been fooling audiences with false reality. Many scientists suggest that cavemen drawings may have even been a form of magic as they believed that drawing their hunting trips will cause them to come to life. Obviously this did not work however it allowed the cavemen to have some self confidence when they went hunting.

During the middle-ages any sort of magic or conjuring was considered sinful due to religion portraying it as evil witchery however by the 17th century the interest in magic was minimal. This was mainly due to scientific advances, that  were able to disprove such illusions.

So now, magic is just a form of entertainment however some still believe it to be reality.


An act that I have been personally interested in recently is Penn & Teller as they invent cunning ways of fooling the audience as well as offering abstract ways of thinking. 

There's one trick in particular that interests me as it seems to resemble Plato's analogy of the cave, it's an illusion called 'Shadows' which Teller himself invented and executes so well: 

"People would fool themselves just to make that image be real to them" - Penn Jillette 

So it seems that illusions may be created by the self as well as the environment - causing us to live in a eternal loop of false reality. 

(Source(s): http://library.thinkquest.org/J0111851/history_of_magic.htm)

The Shadow Dance

The Shadow Dance by Samual Van Hoogstraten (1675) 

One artist that has used perspective and shadows to demonstrate platonic ideas of illusion is Samuel Van Hoogstraten in his drawing ‘the shadow dance’ (below). In this image Hoogstraten has used ‘shadow play’ to see how light can cause the distortion of scale as it can be seen that objects that are closer to the light can create a larger shadow than those that are farther away. It appears, in this drawing, that the shadows have been cast upon a screen. If the viewer observes closely they may see that at the bottom right of the drawing the audience can be seen peering through the screen which almost represents that of Plato’s escaped prisoner. The idea of the audience watching  on the other side of the screen can be correlated to the prisoners of Plato’s cave as they have been ‘fooled’ into believing that the magnificent shadows have been projected by real forms, when in reality their perceptions have been manipulated by the illusion of scale. 

In his book ‘A short history of the shadow’ author Victor I. Stoichita writes about the drawing “It illustrates that the study of cast shadows was not only a question of perspective but the product of empirical manipulation”. This is almost an identical to the ideas held by Plato in his allegory of the cave as Plato argues that empiricism may sometimes be unreliable.  

 

Contemporary Adaptation

Hoogstraten’s drawing inspired Rafael Lozano Hemmer's outdoor interactive installation ‘Body Movies’ (2001) which was based in the Netherlands and has been exhibited elsewhere. This piece consists of a projectors placed above the building and on ground level to create an exaggeration of scale when a shadow is cast upon the wall.

Hemmer tries to digitally reproduce the principles of Hoogstraten's drawing using a video tracker, a controller initiated by MIDI signals and a camera server which projects images of people onto the space while distorted shadows of passing pedestrians are cast upon the wall. This resembles Plato’s allegory as there is a lasting image (the projection) and a temporary illusion (The shadows).

The interactive aspect of this work reinforces the juxtaposition of what is empirical and what is supernatural because this dormant piece of architecture is transformed into a reflection, or refraction, of human perception and understanding. As Hemmer himself mentions "I'm interested in environments that involve your perception" and enjoys "creating an environment which is connected with people" so it seems that interaction is an integral part of depicting the divide between experience and that which is beyond all experience which, at this scale, has a very profound effect on the viewer.

Regardless of this, critic Graham Coulter Smith describes Hemmer, in his book Deconstructing installation Art, as a creative artist who has been "trained and conditioned to manipulate and transform rather than simply reproduce" the critic goes on to describe Hemmer's fault as a digital artist being an "obsession with technology" so, perhaps, implying that Hemmer should have taken a more reductionist approach in his technique in order to represent the inspiration from Hoogstraten's drawing. However, despite this, I believe that this is a very interesting, philosophically rich and successful piece by Hemmer even though his technique was rather difficult.

"I'm interested in environments that involve your perception ..." - Rafael Lozano Hemmer

(Source(s): Books --> 'Digital Art' by Christian Paul, 'De-constructing Installation' by Graham Coulter Smith:

http://www.installationart.net/Chapter3Interaction/interaction03.html )

A quote

“Whenever, therefore, people are deceived and form opinions wide of the truth, it is clear that the error has slid into their minds through the medium of certain resemblances to that truth.”

- Socrates

Walking Shadow

This is a video I have created reverting back to the concept of Plato's Cave analogy. 

I may expand on this by PROJECTING this video onto a large area along with another light projector to create the effect of different realms or even surreality. I kept the original sound from the recording to represent empiricism. 

Video Projected

An attempt at projecting the same video in a different context. I was hoping to demonstrate the principles of Lazano-Hemmer's work with the idea of the shadow being separate from the body, almost as if the self is an illusion as well as the environment. 

Images

These are a couple of images I took and edited using a mobile phone application.

Ink

 

These images have stemmed from the photograph I had previously taken and edited. (Top left). This image (top right) was created by getting 'rubbings' of the ground to create a textured surface. I then painted in the shadow to make a representation of the initial image. However I believe it lacks an ethereal edge. 

I believe that I was more successful in creating an ethereal representation in this image (right) as the form is contingent on it's context, rather than existing independently. This image was made by tracing over the initial photograph in order make a stencil, which I then sprayed over with coloured ink.

I did the same with this image (below) however I used an inverted stencil to create a more defined or literal effect.

I liken this experiment to work by American Artist Richard Hambleton. This Untitled piece by Hambleton is made with acrylic paint on paper. Even though I used ink instead of paint, I believe that I have been able to create a similar spontaneous effect.



Acrylic on paper



Acrylic and gouache on paper.

These paintings are a part of the Shadow-man series (1982) which started out as a series of public art pieces however they are now retained in different galleries. Hambleton describes his work by saying "what makes them exciting is the power of the viewer's imagination. It's that split-second experience when you see the figure that matters". This almost resembles the psychological idea of projections, as the viewer is using their own 'imagination' to make sense of the image.

Projections

 
This is a brief experiment I did with an oil lamp projector. In some of the images I managed to capture a shadow.


I was inspired by a light architect named Mike Leonard who is popular for creating light shows for the band 'Pink Floyd' during the '60s. He used a custom built light projector to create the effect of movement when a template is placed in front of the light. Leonard would often improvise his light shows to music. 

I have also been looking at work by Marc Boyle who has also been involved with musicians in the 1960s, producing liquid light shows. Here, Boyle improvises a light show to Pink Floyd's 'Astronomy Domine'. 

(Source(s): http://dangerousminds.net/comments/mike_leonard_the_man_who_created_pink_floyds_light_show_magic)

A quote

"You know nothing about the world out there. You have no reason to believe that you inhabit the world of trees, houses, cats and dogs ... For all you know, your entire world - including the people in it - is virtual ... We are prisoners within our own minds."

-  Stephen Law in his book 'The Complete Philosophy Files" (pg.53)

Light Experiment

A brief light experiment, related to work by Marc Boyle.

I created this through the use of an application called 'Video-cam-illusion' which allows the user to manipulate the quality of environment with different camera settings. Here, I set the filter to the 'thermal' option and the effect to 'mosaic' then recorded the charger lights on my laptop.

I integrated the sense of movement by moving the camera and not the lights themselves. 

Double Projection

Created using two projectors.

I used the oil lamp projector as well as the video projector to provide more interesting imagery. 

Anamorphic Distortions

Here, I revisted my initial experiments to see if any improvements could be made.

My attempts at representing illusion in drawing through anamorphic distortion.

And anamorphic distortion is when an image is drawn in a 'stretched-out' way so when viewed from a specific angle it seems 3 dimensional. This effect is usually achieved when the image is viewed through a camera lense due to eliminating any peripheral vision. The purpose of this kind of drawing is to make it look as if the image is going into or sitting on top of the page. 

       

This was my first attempt at creating an anamorphic drawing. I was quite pleased with the initial results as I managed to create the effect I wanted, however I needed to hone my ability to represent form and shape as well as the desired effect.

This was my second attempt at representing the same object. Because I knew how to create the anamorphic distortion I tried to focus on shape and form, which seemed to have been more successful in this trial. Also, I have been more successful in representing the shadow projected from the object, which is important in creating an anamorphic illusion. 

This object was quite difficult to represent as it possesses very little form however I am quite pleased with the results.

I derived this style of drawing from street artist Julian Beever who often does Trompe Loeil and anamorphic chalk drawings on pavements around the world, some of which have been kept permanent. Beever, like Hoogstraten, had an eye for the illusion of scale and how this may affect the viewer's perception. 

Beever would start by drawing the outline of the image with white chalk while checking the image through the camera as he went along to see if the anamorphic distortion was correct, he made sure of this by using the camera as a reference point. Once this stage of drawing is correct the artist then adds the details however this too is very complicated as it has to be made sure that every detail is distorted according the image. Beever mentioned that the most difficult part of drawing anamorphic images is the shadow which he calls a "Projection within a projection". 

Teoh Yi Chie writes "You know your eyes are playing tricks on you but you can't really figure out what's happening". So it seems as though the artist is distorting  the environment which is almost a platonic concept as the artists uses false projections that give the impression of reality when it may not be the case. 

(source(s): http://julianbeever.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=1 book: Pavement Chalk Artist, http://www.parkablogs.com/content/book-review-pavement-chalk-artist-three-dimensional-drawings-of-julian-beever)

Shadows

Shuffling at my feet,
the line where both realms meet,
is it a:
Reflection?
                      Refraction?
or over-reation?

An exclusion?
Illusion?
Irrational delusion?

We think we hear the voice that sings
"Each of us really knows nothing,
but we all think we know things".



(Source(s): Me)

A quote

"Each of us really knows nothing, but we all think we know things."
- Bob Dylan


(Source(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnl5X5MQKTg ) 

Customised Projection

This is a continuation of the projection work I have previously been experimenting with.

I edited a photograph of shadows by cropping it and then altering the contrast between the image and the background. I then selected the 'Kalidescope' filter, which I then adjusted to create this effect.

After, I printed the image onto clear plastic and then cut it to size, so it fits onto a projector slide.

I then inserted the slide into the oil lamp projector that I had previously used.

These videos are samples of my projection that came as a result.

Although I am pleased with the compositional idea and believe that the quality of the projection could have been of a better standard as when the images where projected they seemed 'pixelated'. This may have been due to taking the software used to edit the image. In the future I hope to improve the quality of this idea by taking the images through a digital camera which will hopefully create a more accurate result. Regardless of this, though, I believe that it was a successful experiment in terms of how it operates.

In terms of the concept, I was attempting to draw inspiration from work by Lazano Hemmer  as well as Boyle and Leonard to suggest 'layers' of illusion. 

An Improvement...

This is an improved projection from my previous experiment. The resolution of the image is much clearer therefore the quality of the projection has improved. In the future I may use different compositions to make the projection visually captivating.

I may even try projecting it onto different environments. 

How Do We Know?

If we all see life through different eyes,
How do we know what is real?

If we all have different ideas of pain,
how do we know what we feel?

If we all possess different minds,
how do we know what is moral?

We only live to serve ourselves,
so what is the use of tomorrow?

Tony Oursler

This piece by Tony Oursler, from a series called Peak, has intrigued me as the artist has experimented by projecting motion images onto an unusual context.

A review from the Lehmann Maupin gallery  states:
"The dynamic developing between humans and the virtual apparatus becomes and is an epistemological mirror of the human consciousness and, thus, is uncanny in its nature."

So Oursler's work, in this case, may be a 'reflection' of human perception and knowledge as well as the complexity of it. I believe that, by using projection in this way, Oursler has effectively conveyed this message. 


(Source(s): http://www.artnet.com/galleries/exhibitions.asp?gid=651&cid=208507 )

These are photographs of my attempts at creating an Ourler style projection.

 This effect was achieved by projecting a live recording of the subject peering through a custom made screen.

The projector pointed towards a screen placed opposite. The subject's expressions are then projected onto the object infront. In this case, a mask.

 

This is effective in anthropormorphising inanimate objects.

The video on the left is created in with the same technique however it is projected on a smaller scale.

This is a video, that Oursler recently made, to accompany David Bowie's song 'Where Are We Now?' I trialled a similar technique in my experiments.  

Oursler Style Projections...

Here are some experiments I did according to Oursler's work.

Video 1

For these recordings I created a clay model which I projected onto, using some of the videos that I had previously made.


Overall, I was pleased with the composion or idea, however I was quite dissatisfied with the quality of the outcome as it seemed that the scale of the clay sculpture did not fit the proportion of the projection video 1.

If I were to repeat this experiment I would perhaps spend more attention to the scale of the subject so it fits the projection.

Illusion of the Self

As well as the illusion of the ENVIRONMENT there is the illusion of the SELF, which is best described through Jungian ideas of the self having a 'shadow' in terms of personality which they are unaware of. These ideas reflect platonic ideas of reality as it can be seen in many writings by Carl Jung.

In his interactive installation piece, entitled Shadow Projection, artist Peter Campus loosely explores Jungian ideas of the self.

I am hoping to involve these such principals in my own work. 

Experiment

In this experiment, with some help, I managed to project live video in a similar way to Peter Campus which was done by connecting a video camera to the projector.

An interesting 'mirroring' effect was created when filming the projection which reinforces platonic ideas of 'layers of reality'.

I am hoping that this method will be rewarding when re-created on a larger scale. 

Here's a miniature model of how I plan to carry out my installation piece:

The video camera will be filming live activity which is then fed through the projector. The projector will display the live video onto the chosen space. If the participant places themselves in the installation space their movement will be projected in front of them, their shadow will also appear but will appear to be independent.