Organic complexity and the conditions of experience
Marshall, Mike (2011) Organic complexity and the conditions of experience. [Film, Photography, Sound art, Video]
This research examines the underlying conditions of human experience and their relation to organic complexity. The term 'experience' is considered in terms of relations between thought, sensation and environment. Moving image, sound and photographic media are used for their capacity to dissect and construct experience, both my own and that of a viewer.
Organic complexity is considered here as an irreducible ontological force. Whereas conscious thought tends to reduce, identify and take sides, organic complexity is characterised by opposite tendencies. This complexity is evoked visually, sonically and conceptually, provoking uncertain spaces and scenarios that cannot easily be resolved within conventional moral or conceptual terms: rain across a political and religious divide, Vietnamese farmers working contested land in Cyprus, a fire on a railway line – the result of a petty act of arson. This research develops themes in my earlier work Activity–Dislocation–Landscape, where human agency coincides with natural forces, and elaborates them within scenarios with a potential political charge. It explores these aims in relation to the following sites: Kings Wood, Kent, the New Forest, Hampshire and the Green Line dividing North and South Cyprus; all locations of residencies during the same time period.
The research also builds upon the aesthetic of my earlier works in developing the sensory character of 'affect' as an alternative to identity-based thinking common to moving image and photographic art forms. A key question is whether the conditions of experience are ultimately those of affect. The aim of this research is, in a sense, to devise an aesthetic understanding appropriate to the complexity of the experienced world.
The research was funded by UCA, ArtSway and Stour Valley Arts, and the Pharos Trust Cyprus.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7839-9731
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