IM Creative Project

thingiverse

This is my creative response to the book "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. It is the plans for an interactive exhibit where viewers can warp mirrors to change perception of themselves. My essay is below: Horatio Hamkins Double Reflection: The Self Reflecting on the Self in Ellison’s Invisible Man The structure of the book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison involves a narrator reflecting on his past. He reflects on racism and growing up in the South; he reflects on his experience at college and his participation in the political group, the Brotherhood. During his account of his past, one gets the impression that he is using the process of reflection to better understand himself and his self-proclaimed invisibility. But one of the most fascinating aspects of the narrative is that sometimes in reflecting on his past, he reflects upon his reflections of the past. “Double Reflection: The Self Reflecting on the Self” is a participatory work of art that enables viewers to experience an analog of the type of meta-reflection present in the novel. This self-reflection allows one to discover their identity and understand how it develops over time. According to John Locke, memory is crucial to our ability to understand ourselves and create our identity. Without a memory of your past, you are no longer who you were. In other words, without memory, you lose your identity. Ellison seems to agree with Locke's view and uses the process of remembering (or reflecting on) the past to arrive at an understanding of himself as well as to create himself. When gallery attendees stand between the two mirrors of the participatory work Double Reflection, they will experience an analog of the narrator’s creation of the self. Unlike standard mirrors that follow precise laws of physics, these reflections admit little distortions, and these distortions play a role in creating the viewer's identity. In fact, the distortions when self-imposed allow viewers to form their own identities rather than slipping on one given by society. In the gallery, participants can actively distort and mold their images to create the type of self they desire. They can adjust the mirrors to warp their reflections, making them taller or shorter. One's memories are not only distorted and molded by oneself but also by others who can play a crucial role in helping one to create their identity. For example, in Invisible Man, Mary inspires the narrator to embrace his racial identity and reflect upon his past in a new way. Thus Mary has the power to warp the reflecting mirror that helps him identify who he is. Some of the changes (the warping) in the mirrors will be programmed to represent the way in which Mary affects the narrator's identity. The installation of this participatory work of art, however, is beyond my budget. I have created a plan for a large piece of immersive, participatory art that illustrates how viewers experience distortion when they stand between two mirrors. Participants can adjust the angle and degree to which the mirrors warp their images. Tilting them up could make them feel taller. One of the mirrors will be malleable and programmed to go through subtle changes, slightly altering the viewer's appearance. The mirrors are positioned opposite each other so that each reflection in one mirror creates another reflection in the opposite mirror, and so on until infinity, with each change being greater than the last one. This allows viewers to experience what it is like for their identities to develop and build upon their past in response to the distorting effect of their own memory and the influence of others.