WEEK 7 - SURFACE AS SIGHT ENCOUNTER - PHOEBE WELMAN WHITMAN

SURFACE. CONDITIONS. THE TEMPORAL. OCCASION. FRAME. 

Surface is more than a 2d plane. Whitman gave examples of surface as sight encounter, a composition, or a process of bringing the unseen into observation. Surface could be a boundary or an intensity. Whitman emphasised that the division of surface divides interiority and exteriority. Her lecture introduced James Gibsons quote; “surface is where light is reflected or absorbed, not the interior of the surface, not the inner substance, not the material that constitutes surface”. Surface is created through illumination, where we cannot see light filling the air, but only as it illuminates surface. 

Grosz introduced surface as sensation, sensation being the product of artistic practice – “art according to Gilles Deleuze…produces sensations, affects and intensities”1 . Grosz further elaborates with another Deleuze quote “sensations affects and intensities, while not readily identifiable, are clearly closely connected with forces, and particularly bodily forces, and their qualitative transformations”1 

Grosz explores the frame, and concludes that without frame “there can be no territory, and without territory”1 no expressive qualities. Thus explains that territory “may be understood as surface”, where “framing is the raw condition under which sensations are created…”1

We explored the Rhizome through further reading. The rhizome “implied a contact, and movement, between different milieus and registers, between areas that are usually thought of as distinct. …”the making of connections in this sense might be understood as a key modality of creativity in general.”2 This study of rhizome links to Pheobe Whitmans lecture and her emphasis on the importance of intuition, to be working with unknown result and connection to ones self. 

I spent some time under the dappled shade of a tree as encouraged. I created a map of the moving shadows across my body, focussing on the intensity of feelings on my skin. I then abstracted the map to include any intensity, be it emotional, physical, structural or abstract. This allowed me to explore aspects of interiority, where interior could be defined by these intensities. This relates to surface dividing interior with exterior and Groszs exploration of frame. 

1 Elizabeth Grosz, 'Chaos, Cosmos, Territory, Architecture' in Chaos, Territory, Art: Deleuze And The Framing Of The Earth (Colombia University Press: New York, 2008).

2 Simon O'Sullivan, 'Rhizomes, Machines, multiplicities and Maps: Notes Towards an Expanded Art Practice ( Beyond Representation)' in Art Encounters Deleuze and Guattari; Thought beyond Representation (Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2006).