Learning to See the Unknown: Drawing Out the Strange

Learning to See the Unknown: Drawing Out the Strange is a thesis project that takes a speculative approach to reflecting on subjective experiences of mental imagery, perception, and other neural phenomena. Entangled with ways of understanding from scientific knowledge practices within neuroscience the work engages with histories of scientific renderings that visualize the invisible. Examinations of neuroculture reveal ongoing interconnections between art and neuroscience. Scientific imaging processes of the brain render visible invisible phenomena, such as thought and consciousness. Artistic interplay with this type of imaging exposes ambivalent possibilities in what it means to see and think, challenging the scientific understanding of mind and perception. In my studio practice I begin to develop a methodology that ‘excavates’ my subjective neural experiences and interconnects the experience with emerging theories of neuroscience phenomena. Starting with my own experience of the strangeness of neural phenomena and utilizing a process of making that corresponds with the performance of material, I create a series of drawings that resist making the strange familiar. How can I visualize the unknown but maintain a strangeness, an ambiguity, that resists the apprehension of knowability? This thesis examines several works Untitled Light Space, Untitled Darkness, and Untitled Mental Specimen Space and engages with works from other artists and theories surrounding light, perception, neuroscience and the relationship of objectivity and subjectivity in art and science. The thesis includes interludes of poetic writing that reflect on and attempt to convey the odd neural sensations I experienced as a child which are driving forces for some of the work.