Mapping
Perception
by Giles
Lane and Katrina Jungnickel, Editors,
Andrew Kotting
Proboscis, London, 2002
80 pp., illus. col & CD-ROM + VHS.
Paper, $US25.00
ISBN: 1-901540-21-9.
Reviewed by Mike Leggett
University of Technology Sydney
legart@ozemail.com.au
"
it doesnt exactly
look like a human being yet. Although
it has a heart that beats." Lines
like this proliferated in the movies of
the 30s and 40s: Frankenstein;
The Island of Dr Moreau; Cat
People. Medical intervention into
the realm of the human organism (parthogenesis)
was the subject of endless invention in
the minds of screen writers and the makeup
department. Together with stentorian speeches
by the likes of Charles Laughton and others
standing in the shadows of film noir,
public awareness of aspects of contemporary
medical science were the more positive
outcomes that could be hoped for through
the coming together, for brief moments
anyway, of the creatives and the M.D.s.
Mapping Perception is an altogether
more responsible document and description
of an art and science collaboration that
occurred in the late 90s. The above quote
from the monster film genre
is used within a sound collage, the soundtrack
to one of many film fragments, gathered
with much else besides, by the film maker
Andrew Kotting and his four main collaborators:
Eden Kotting, his daughter, artist and
performer; Giles Lane, curator and producer;
Dr Mark Lythgoe, neurophysiologist based
in Britains premiere childrens
hospital; and Toby McMillan, sound designer.
Eden was born in 1988 with a rare genetic
disorder that led to impaired brain function,
the focus point for the collaborators
embarking on this "experimental entanglement".
The project, was multi-layered, crossing
disciplines and led to material outcomes
that included, from the artists, a 35mm
film, an audio-visual installation, a
CD-ROM together with the elegantly designed
and printed book. (Excerpts from the film
with notes and movies about the making
of the film and the installation are included).
The range of formats in this package both
require and allow alternative ways of
engaging with the collaborators
work.
The scientists, (including contributions
from such distinguished scholars as Professor
Richard Gregory, experimental psychologist;
and a cosmologist; physicists; specialist
radiologists), outline their fields of
expertise in relation to Edens experience
and in various ways describe and advance
our understanding of the faculty of perception.
This is no given. Though Eden is impaired,
her perceptual apparatus cannot be measured
against those of us who are differently
abled anymore than communication can occur
between two people ignorant of one anothers
language signs and little performances
between one another might help, but nothing
will enable rational intercourse. Perception
is specific to each individual and each
circumstance, and any or all of the five
senses that come into play.
The neurophysiologist Mark Lythgoe uses
the metaphor of The Castle of the Five
Senses in the film, where five narrow
arrow windows restrict our ability to
receive incoming stimulus. He reveals:
"The narrative for Mapping
Perception was created not via a series
of happenstance events, but was formed
like a jigsaw piece by piece, trial
and error until the story we had
in our collective unconscious was realized.
Those were the moments of revelation for
me.
I cannot explain how or why
you suddenly get those moments of clarity,
when that fuzzy fog inside your head finally
lifts."
The book and the CDROM mirror one
another interactivity with their content
being similar to both. The CDROM
of course contains many motion picture
clips, the book includes a handy pull
out sitemap to prevent any chance of dislocating
the interaction.
Certainly a lot of stuff happened during
these four years. Kotting notes: "A
film as first attempt at coming to term
with Edens condition and my new
state of mind." Possibly this
means his mind adapted to a different
viewpoint: "In science there is
no comfortable escape into the world of
words." The producer Lane described
the project as being "
a
much more balanced and feminine approach
to thinking in a non-hierarchical and
non-deterministic way and much more open
to difference
"
This project was significantly supported
by the Royal College of Surgeons; the
Sciart Consortium; the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation; several departments of government
and the Royal College of Art. It was much
more than a significantly documented collaborative
work between artists and scientists. It
reminds us that our place in the world
is initiated by factors outside our control
that through individual determination
and resolve can be made conscious by our
engagement with it. The person opposite
us at this moment in time as this is read
is where this begins, and begins again.