Psyche’s Parabola: a photon koan

psyche – the totality of, or the space in-between the eternal pause of breath; (the) soul

parabola – a parallel between two essentially dissimilar things that emphasizes the interior of its self

photon – the carrier of radiant energy; vibrational light

koan – a paradox, question or problem used to encourage the abandonment of dependence on empirical reason and provoke silent, intuitive, interior illumination; a parable.

My work revolves around questions of perception and how we may begin to comprehend the complexity and richness of our internal and external sense mechanisms. With my thesis work, I am interested in bringing the details of subtlety to the foreground, eliciting an environment that might inspire quiet reflection and observation. The creation of my thesis installation provided an immersion in the hidden internal treasures within both the process of making and of experiencing the final piece. Psyche’s Parabola contains within it the seed of an effort toward a non-representational, abstract, internal structure.

In addition to my evolving practice of interiorization and self-observation, the study of many interrelated fields of philosophy including phenomenology, epistemology, metaphysics and esotericism have supported my work and research during my thesis year at PNCA. Phenomenology and its related fields asked many, in my opinion, highly esoteric questions, which I believe can only be answered through introspection and reflection.

Winner of the 2014 BFA Photography Department Award