Ways of Seeing

Had a really great meeting with Greg this morning, and he lent me some brilliant books on forensic art, interviews, visualisation, memory etc. Also getting a chance to take part in the composite interview module they do over at the MSI building, later next month. Think that will be fascinating, trying to recall information and see how good my own recollective memory is. My idea, work and research has gone off into a completely different area now which is good, but I also have to make sure I'm not going off at constant tangents, and try and focus in on the important elements to my work.

Psychology of seeing.....

So, after having a think about this new direction my work was taking and talking to my tutors I got in contact with Greg over at Forensic Art, which 'is perhaps most well known for work in facial reconstruction, the process of rebuilding a face from the skull, both to aid forensic identification and archaeological investigation' but they also do various exercises in police questioning and psychology, which is an area I have discovered while researching my slightly different theme. I'd like to develop the idea of people visualising something and how they then record that or, possibly, some interactive piece whereby the participant is unaware of the whole picture of which they are interacting, while an audience can see the results.



I was advised to ensure there was a definite element of 'play' in my work, and that the participants made the experience their own, as opposed to guiding them to the outcome. Anyway, initially I am going to meet Greg tomorrow and have a chat to see what advice or pointers in this area he can give.

Elephants on acid

I was lucky enough to go to Tokyo over Christmas and New Year and while on the flight I read this book - and found myself thinking of changing my direction with regards to my project. The book looked at lots of bizarre experiments and one was the power of suggestion using image, and I thought this would be a good concept to look at with regards to interaction - what could be suggested or removed from someone's recollection of a story via certain imagery and how it is seen and interacted with? It also come about after reflecting on a few of the lectures where it had been mentioned how in police interviews people will make up information when they can't remember details, not intentionally but just the way the brain works. So I intend to explore and do a little bit of problem solving with this one and see where that takes me too.

Also, while in Tokyo, there was an interactive Christmas display - whereby you put your hands on to the electronic pad and it picked up on your 'mood' and the lighting changes accordingly. Great interactive fun!