Michael Benjamin Izett: The Unconscious And Electronic Art; Is Automatism Achievable Through Modern Technology?
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| Fig.2 Jackson Pollock Painting. 1940
When witnessed live, it is quite clear that Kuoppala’s work is not just an extreme form of improvisation; it instead suggests unmediated emotional liberty conveyed digitally. This may be down to the fact that his chosen medium is reasonably unexplored, leaving knowledge of how to properly control its parameters lacking. Nonetheless, it is fair to say that there is no stimulus. Thus, his art falls under the category of automatism.
Through referring to this story, Hiller has already suggested automatism (the writing of unintelligible words), but, intriguingly, this piece is an example of an attempt to prompt automatism and reverie within the viewer, as well as exhibiting her own. The installation combines photography, automatic drawings, domestic furnishings, sound and video. The focal point of the arrangement is a television monitor centred in the middle of the room, which plays footage of a bonfire representing the essential service of the fireplace or hearth within past households to not only warm and cook with but also entertain and socialise around. Accompanying the footage of fire, we hear recordings of Hiller’s son attempting to recall details from Rembrandt’s painting of the same biblical tale. Layered over her son’s voice, we also hear Hiller employing the practice of automatic speaking (indicating the phenomenon of speaking in tongues within a religious context), as well as dictating news accounts of people’s encounters with supposed ghosts and extra-terrestrial entities through television screens. In an interview with Catherine Kinley, Hiller explains her use of the television set. I have the feeling that nowadays the television set functions like the hearth or fireplace used to. What I wanted to do with the imagery of the work was to establish for the audience their own ability to dream, to create images out of these free-floating, ever changing shapes. This, of course, has a very long tradition in art; just think of Leonardo’s advice to his young painters to look at moss on rocks or drifting clouds to suggest forms. (ed. Einzig, 1996, p. 91) This is the real value of the piece. Conceptually setting the scene with automatic processes within the installation (automatic drawings, photographs, sound and the latter half of the title); Hiller is re-establishing the recognition that the members of the audience have their own unconscious minds and are capable of accessing and interacting with them. In addition to this, with the imagery of the bonfire, Hiller may be directly referencing Freudian theory, as fire is instinctively very relatable and familiar to us as a species further contributing to the possibility of the audience reacting unconsciously. 
Fig. 3 Hiller Belshazzar’s Feast (The Writing on Your Wall) 1983-84 Directory: 2016 2016 -> Senate, No. 627 State of new jersey 217th legislature 2016 -> 2017 afoCo Landmark Scholarship Program 2016 -> Instructions for the Preparation of Camera-Ready Contributions to the Conference Proceedings 2016 -> Strategic Plan South Sudan Country Office Context 2016 -> Original: English 2016 -> Step student Scholarships for Year 10-13 2016 -> Resolution 2016 -> American bar association adopted by the house of delegates Download 3.36 Mb. Share with your friends:
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