Matt & his energy

MAPPING OF SENSORY EXPERIENCES

-PART 1-

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-PART 2-

There are so many pieces of art/expression that come to mind that encompass heavy or unique and evocative sensory experiences for me. Film especially though has had a massive influence to my appreciation of extra-sensory material as it itself presents it content not only visually, but aurally and kinetically also. It is an ideal medium to explore synaesthetic or even hyper-real experiences i.e scenarios or concepts that break the boundaries of reality as we know(or even perceive) it. Some things come to mind immediately such as “Bladerunner”, where ‘replicants’, robotic humans so real they are virtually undetectable challenge our own perceptions of what it means to exist. Other films like ‘Donnie Darko’ or even the more commercial ‘Matrix’ films explore the possibilities of an alternate reality guised by how we perceive our environment through our senses, and also the omnipresent notion of ‘something else’ being out there than just the tangible world as we know it..
The film that had the greatest effect on me though is a relatively unknown, ‘animated’ (in the traditional sense) film called “Waking Life”

This film doesn’t directly relate to my sensory experience, but at the same time has many parallels as to how both entities,(the film and the experience) are absorbed by me. Its relevance lies in both its presentation and content. The film was created using a method called rotoscoping, where real images are first filmed, then literally painted in later, thus allowing a creative freedom in their translation, and in a sense, in itself representing a synergy of two totally different visual artforms creating the one end result. A very possible synaesthetic medium. As well as looking like a moving painting, the actual conversations, topics and ideals are represented as movement, shape and colour directly related to the scene and content, again being achievable through the choice of presentation, and once again heightening the whole piece’s synaesthetic attributes.

-PART 3-

An object that has always carried a rich sensory experience is an old book. Something probably over a hundred years old or more generally suffices and its content is not necessarily important but can also be intrinsic to the richness and multifacetedness of the stimuli.
Ive always had this dream about going to an ancient library, like say the Vatican library and just being lost in the sea of awe and inspiration, gravity of how sacred and historically important old, original texts are, the energy they hold, the aroma when you open them almost letting out an air of wisdom that they have carried through the ages within their covers. When you smell the old book odour as you open the text, it olfactorily informs you that you are reading or just generally experiencing something incredibly important or profound. The smell of an old, old book also takes you to another time and place, another era, not unlike the implied significance of Marcel DuChamp’s “Air de Paris 1919”.