“Optics” workshops with The East End Special Players Explorers
How we see and experience the world is unique to each of us.
This project explores perception and sight with prompts and props - to initiate conversations based on the science of sight, exploring how we see (or don’t see) using our eyes and other senses. We experiment with optical crystal cubes, prism suncatchers, triangular prisms, reflective mylar, magnifiers, mirrors, and a microscope. We find inspiration in the work of artists experimenting with light throughout their photographs, installations, dance, and collaborative happenings. This includes artists using filters such as glass, prisms, mirrors, or windows– oftentimes making self-portraits or investigating their own notions of perception, optics and seeing; Ilse Bing ‘Self-Portrait in Mirrors’, 1931; Berenice Abbot ‘Light Through Prism’, 1958; Barbara Kasten ‘Collision 5E’, 2016; Duane Michals ‘Heisenberg’s Magic Mirror of Uncertainty, 1998, and Billy Klüver (Experiments in Art and Technology) with Andy Warhol ‘Silver Clouds’, 1966.
Part I Exploring optical instruments - geometry, abstraction through drawing and collage.
Part 2 Through the Microscope - a bee, butterfly, feather, plants, and personal content.
“Optics” workshops/happenings are made possible by the generous support of a Malka Fund Grant.