REFERENCE: Confinement in Film

Confinement, enclosure and claustrophobia are all extremely common forms of fear and paranoia that most people can unanimously relate to in some way. The use of confined spaces in film is possibly the most frequently utilised method of creating fear, tension and anxiety. It is because many of us can relate to this predicament that they have such an effect on us, it starts very early on in childhood. Our exploration of spaces and the world only leads to more, we are unsure where these spaces and pathways take us. At the basis of all these emotions is our sense of curiosity and fear of the unknown and surprise. These all work together to emphasise the most basic of spatial phobias.

Alice in Wonderland (1999) directed by Nick Willing

Alice in Wonderland directed by Jan Svankmajor

Kill Bill Volume. 2 (2004) directed by Quentin Tarantino

REVIEW: [Yayoi Kusama Retrospective] @ Tate Modern, London

Tate Modern recently revealed its new retrospective for the renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

"Her art has an almost hallucinatory intensity that reflects her unique vision of the world, whether through a teeming accumulation of detail or the dense patterns of polka dots that have become her signature. The incessant quality of this gesture is both obsessive and meditative.

In the late 1990s, Kusama returned to making room size installations. In her installations, this image of bourgeois stasis is turned into something surreal and uncanny. All the room and furnishing covered with sticker spots which glow. The polka dot can be the visual shorthand signifying her hallucinatory visions. Covering in a room in psychedelic polka dots might be her attempt to visualise and restage the experience of her own hallucinatory episodes, during which she senses the physical world overtaken by endlessly repeated forms. Her representation of her inner world results in an installation that is fantastical and potentially unsettling. Spots are more readily experienced as interruptions of our own field of vision rather than a surface motif.

I'm Here But Nothing (2000) by Yayoi Kusama

I'm Here But Nothing (2000) by Yayoi Kusama

Her piece 'Infinity Mirror Room' is a depiction of infinite space. Reflecting surfaces has become a recurring element in her work. Large scale environments that viewers can walk into and explore. She proposes an experience for the infinite, inviting the viewer to suspend his or her sense of self -accompanying Kusama on her ongoing journey of self-obliteration." -Tate Modern

REFERENCE: Immersing Body & Mind

The TV documentary 'What makes a masterpiece?' (2012) courtesy of Channel 4, features James Turrell's immersive installations as a play between science and art, powering between experience and aesthetics.

 

"His work is often described as explorations in light and space. The artist calls his work 'adventures in perception' and I can't help thinking this is a take on the brave new world of neuro-aesthetics, which studies the impact of art on the brain. By flooding the senses with otherworldly flushes of light, Turrell is creating something of a new reality, born of a fusion of the two disciplines of art and science. In Turrell's case, beauty isn't so much in the eye of the beholder but the brain." -Matthew Cain

With new technology and developing art practices that now frequently combine the two, it is becoming difficult in defining what exactly affects us when we encounter art. Whether there is some key element that engages the viewer's attention, or whether it is the joy of surprise and the new. James Turrell's installations don't only overload the senses with his extreme colour and light, but they seem to transport the viewer to a psychological state, an alternate reality of escape.

REVIEW: [Black Mirror] directed by Charlie Brooker

I watched the brilliant, dark and unsettling Black Mirror, which has been constantly surprising me with how on point it's commentary is. A dystopian series of small stories, wrapped in a very familiar universe to our own, Black Mirror gives us a disturbing glimpse into the not so far future of technology and it's impact on our lives. I've always been quite cynical about how quickly technology is developing and how dependent and intertwined it has become with everyday life. I'm not going to lie, it worries me. And Charlie Brooker does a wonderful job of fulfilling my fears in this drama series.

In an interview I watched online, Charlie Brooker states he decided to call the series Black Mirror because when our digital devices are switched off, they literally look like a black mirror staring back at us. And there's something twisted, mysterious and great about that.e

Episode two "15 million merits" focused on our obsession with entertainment shows and insistent technological distractions. It is set in an alternate future where everyone lives in a tiny cell comprised of a room-size virtual screen in which every activity takes place through the currency of virtual merits. From a virtual cockerel wake-up call in the morning, to picking out food from a virtual vending machine on a screen, all activities revolve around this technological medium.

My interest is in the idea of living within a video itself...which actually isn't a new idea really at all. Games such as Second Life and Sims have been doing this for ages. They offer you the option to cast yourself in an alternate life and reality. Worrying when it leads some to spend more time on their "virtual" lives than their real ones. With all these recent new technologies such as the Wii and the X-box where you can effectively control your own virtual world with simple movement, it leaves little other activity to be desired or necessary. Instead of doing the real activity itself (such as sport) people opt to do it virtually instead. We become completely immersed in a world which essentially doesn't even exist. And the problem is that some people actually prefer it.

PRACTICE: Jack in a Box

There is a really interesting border between comfort and confinement. The smaller spaces are, the more we tend to feel uncomfortable and constrained. At the same time, some people are reassured by smaller spaces, by a sanctuary, a pocket of space big enough for themselves alone. Just by comparing cenophobia and claustrophobia for example; one is the fear of barren, open spaces, and the other is a fear of crowded, tight spaces. The fact that we are able to pivot towards either extreme demonstrates just how much space can affect us. Can a smaller space become a refuge or a prison?

Above the Below (2003) by David Blaine

1 Without (2010) by Wannes Goetschalckx

1 Kind (2007) by Wannes Goetschalckx

Wannes Goetschalckx is a performance artist who works a lot with restricted spaces. He looks at the emotional and physical in relation to body and space. He aims to reveal the hidden and apparent constraints in human life, the coexistence of comfort and pain, exposure and enclosure, cage and shelter.

"1 Without" is a video installation featuring Goetschlackx doing different activities in various sized wooden boxes, exploring the notion of captivity. It is reminiscent of what children do when they find empty boxes and containers to hide or play inside. From a young age, we learn to explore with our imagination. As we get older we tend to associate smaller spaces more and more with confinement and not play. We see spaces only on the surface, and we no longer seem to possess that curiosity for creating spaces of our own.

'Watch Where You Look' (2012) by Vivienne Du

The Box Task Day 16, Big Brother 6 (2005) courtesy of Channel 4

A task from Big Brother 6 required all the housemates to stay in their assigned cardboard boxes for as long as possible. Due to the nature of Big Brother, the activity was posed as a fun and entertaining treatment of the housemates' endurance. At first the housemates seemed to enjoy their new challenge but clearly as the time went on, the confinement of staying in a box for hours on end clearly became too unbearable for most. Three managed to stay in their boxes for just over 26 hours, you wonder whether they were simply not as affected by space or their determination drove them to stay.

Freak Like Me, courtesy of BBC3

REVIEW: [1:1 Architects Build Small Spaces] @ V&A, London

For an exhibition, nineteen architects were invited to submit a concept design for buildings informed by ideas of retreat and refuge, these were all designed in mind to be small in scale.

"the power that architecture has to silence all external noise, to focus attention on ones very own existence, away from everyday life and in the present moment, and to initiate a private dialogue with the space around us."

Ark (2010) by Rintala Eggertsson

Ark (2010) Rintala Eggertsson

In-Between Architecture (2010) by Studio Mumbai

Woodshed (2010) by Rural Studio

"Pallasmaa has expressed his concern that architecture has lost its connection with the body, that is has lost its potential for tactility and sensuous curiosity," and "Steven Holl indicated that in a world cluttered with a chaos of visual information we have developed a numbness in relation to the space around us, becoming increasingly passive in the way we read, interpret and consume our architecture."

"...the idea is to leave domestic surroundings and your everyday thoughts behind and enter a space that puts you into a state of wonder. Its a retreat, but unlike introverted contemplation, these spaces force you to interact with your surroundings. When entering, reality gradually transforms; things are not necessarily as they appear. The idea is to create a dreamlike atmosphere, where the borders between reality and illusion are blurred."

"we hope the visitor will experience a balanced joy -using body and mind to travel to unknown spaces."

Everything these architects have been discussing has a direct parallel in my work. I want people to be able to engage with spaces with a new sense of wonder and curiosity, to let their body and minds interact and immerse fully in the space around them and to forget the rest of reality.

PRACTICE: The Childhood Hideaways

At some point, we have all draped blankets across our bedroom, or the living room to create our own dens and spaces. It seems to be a common childhood activity from our memories, building our own escapes. Tents, and dens and small spaces that we use to transport us to a different place. Our imagination was able to take us to a parallel space than the one we created. I love that idea that we instinctively create spaces for ourselves, trying to mould and change the world to fit us, rather than trying to make ourselves fit into the world. This type of innocent play and exploration slowly leaves us as we mature. It's very reminiscent of stories like "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe", how our need for imagination powers our world. I feel like it's something very rooted in my interests. Remembering the love I had for creating spaces of my own out of anything I could find, bed sheets, curtains, duvets, pillows, just to create my own hideaway, my own escape, my own space and world.

The Hiding Place (1998) by Bjore Bjarre

In a way I suppose that is still what I am hoping to capture in my work, that same childlike wonder and curiosity for building spaces and playing within them. I think that it is nice to be reminded of a safe haven we liked to keep as children, and even now we are still moulding the world to try and fit round us as best we can.