2012-2013 Science poster Light grants us the capacity to perceive, this makes light an essential and powerful tool for the visual artist and is the subject of my research. By harnessing the immaterial, transient nature of light, I explored the possibilities of visual phenomena and perception itself. In the summer of 2012, I traveled throughout Europe to the epicenter of this artistic research, conducting studio visits, interviews with artists, and experienced light based installations. The sketches, notes, and photographs from my travels guided my subsequent studio based work. During this year-long study, I experimented with different lighting technologies to fabricate miniature installations which reveal vast, infinite landscapes shaped by light. I developed wearable mirrored ocular apparatuses for the viewer to peer into for an optically immerse experience. The viewer’s vision was instantaneously distorted and fragmented into an omnipresently-twisted vision of the world. I channeled light through a series of mirrors to reflect multiple places in a gallery, transforming the entire space into an apparatus for the passage of light. My research led to the creation of sculptures and pictures that heighten our awareness to the natural world, by causing us to experientially stare directly into the the invisible operations of optics at work.
