Artist Statement
Studying Multiple Perspectives Using Animation
Since 2022, I have been researching and producing pareidolia (*1) animations which use few images, with the theme of “studying multiple perspectives using animation”.
Research in psychology and film studies have shown that by using editing techniques, the visual information obtained from images can intentionally emphasize a particular perspective, or strongly elicit a particular impression. In other words, it’s possible to give a different impression of information not found in a single image or video, through the timing of projection, or by combining it with other images. Therefore, when it comes to visual information from images, whether it is simply information or a work of art, rather than simply taking a given impression as-is, it is necessary to acquire the skill to always be able to judge the truth and value oneself. I believe that in order to do so, it is necessary to experience many perspectives and to acquire the power of imagination.
Throughout the long history of painting, painters have studied how to show the viewer a greater number of perspectives. For instance, as seen in the technique of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1526-1593) with which he combined a collection of animals or plants to create body parts (known in Japanese as yose-e), there are multiple perspectives that include the nature of riddle-solving, and many visual perspectives, like that of Cubism in modern art. There are also multiple perspectives within animation and optical illusion. What these have in common is that they are drawn in advance to have multiple perspectives within a single painting or image.
My research has created multiple perspectives in a new way, using yose-e, Cubism, Surrealism, abstract expressionism, pop art, and animation as context. An image with a single perspective is used for each frame of a video, and multiple perspectives are created by the pareidolia effect as it is in motion. I believe this creates a sense of unexpectedness, surprising and impressing the viewer. At the same time, one can learn through experience that visual information from images can intentionally emphasize a particular point of view, or strongly elicit a particular impression. Also, by repeating this experience, I think we can move on to the next step of learning new ways to relate to images sent from around the world.
(*1) Pareidolia (/ˌpærɪˈdoʊliə, ˌpɛər-/;[1] also US: /ˌpɛəraɪ-/)[2] is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.
"Copyrighted works."Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia, English version. 3 January 2024, at 09:02 (UTC).
Skull Suspension Series
Blinking Skulls
While I was facing the question of how to create more surprises and impressions, I succeeded in creating a new perspective using the pareidolia effect. This piece is a pareidolia animation that creates two or more perspectives in motion.
The first perspective is of the skull. This is expressed as “blinking” in the video. The second perspective is of the “suspension”. This is represented by a shock absorber that moves up and down at the center of the skull. Neither of these are visible in static images, so they could be considered basic animation perspectives.
My work is remarkable in that it makes these two perspectives, “blinking” and “suspension”, appear at the same time, and that each perspective is visually unbroken. Additionally, it is easy to actively switch between these two perspectives.
Usually, in pareidolia and visual illusions, bias is said to be at work. This is a visual bias. To use a picture using optical illusion as an example, for the viewer who sees the portrait of the wife (the young woman) in My Wife and My Mother-in-law (Hill, W.E., 1915) (*2), the portrait of the mother-in-law (the old woman) becomes harder to see. Even after recognizing the two perspectives, it is not easy to actively switch between them, or to perceive them at the same time.
In my work, it is easy to switch between the two perspectives, and so as the switching repeats, the perspectives eventually merge, allowing a new perspective without contradiction to appear. This is a mysterious perspective in which it looks like there is one imaginary creature, but the two perspectives are unbroken. I call this a visual and psychological “fused perspective”. It presents a new perspective, contextualized by the many perspectives invented over the history of painting as well as animation technology.
(*2) "My Wife and My Mother-in-Law" is a famous ambiguous image, which can be perceived either as a young girl or an old woman (the "wife" and the "mother-in-law", respectively).
"Copyrighted works."Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia, English version. 17 December 2023, at 12:13 (UTC).
URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Wife_and_My_Mother-in-Law