This paper is an endeavor into distinguishing the ways in which passive looking can become an active mode of seeing through practices of sustained looking, including bouts of staring and spells of daydreaming. Utilizing references from the fields of psychology, metaphysics, and phenomenology, this paper examines how visual perception impacts the human psyche, in order to appreciate the complexities of the fundamental act of seeing. Visual art and literature also aid in establishing the importance of the house and home in exploring the intersection of vision and mind.

“All That Surrounds” is, in many ways, a linguistic recognition and appreciation of the sense of sight and the constant flow of images that appear within my customary field of vision.

Winner of 2014 Visual Studies Department Award