The first half second: visual decay
Colors, shapes, and forms are collected on the inner surface of the eye before they can be directed by memory and one can ‘see’.
Maunder Minimum gives access to a different type of vision. This body of work addresses iconic decay as an unperceived aspect of sight. In order to do this, I created a number of artificial retinas on which images can be focused. These membranes retain optical information much in the same way does the eye, through the manipulation of three different types of rare earth strontium aluminate embedded within a tetra polymer membrane. These carefully arranged elements reflect the distribution of my own rods and cones and have been developed into a device, which can only ‘see’ after images, as disassociated forms gathering new context, presenting an aesthetic world of imagery beyond our conscious view. It is an intricate aspect to the way we perceive and in turn, create, revealing subdued forms and colors left to play out in inversion, fading and lessening before finally digressing into the unconscious.
The sequence below shows the decaying image, captured by the same retina sensor at subsequent points in time.
