Sihan Yang

The eyes see imagery as a reflection passing through different mediums before either making sense to us or not. Due to the characteristics of the medium, and the many possible ways they are used, what the eyes see can be ambiguous: distorted, hindered, enhanced, or filtered. Every time an image goes through a medium it generates another image. For instance, we cannot stare into our own eyes except by means of some other medium, such as a mirror’s reflection or a camera lens. The mirror and the camera generate a new subjective image, either due to the nature of the materials, or the choices we make in terms of how to view them. Each step of reflection is a form of abstraction and reconstruction of reality. 

 

In the in-between state/space, such as the transition from sleep to waking, a disruption can happen, alter the perceptual experience and break down the linear structure of time. It merges the imagery from our current experience, imagination, hallucination and memories, causing the subjects to linger between past and present, real and unreal. The eyes (regardless of whether they are open or not) are seeing through the conflated inter-layered ambiguity of realities, the image within the image; seeing what is concealed and what is revealed, what is concrete and realistic, and what is formless and abstract. 

 

A glitch is a subtle, quick detachment from whatever we are perceiving. It is the fracture of the infrastructure of consciousness and experience, which creates portals for us to jump between the familiar and the obscure, to travel between realities. Energy is always fluctuating, and matters are always shifting forms, and a glitch can occur among the vibrations of our lived experience. 

 

Montage is a way of generating new meanings through the juxtaposition and collisions of elements. The in-between state fluctuates with the fragmentations of images, the different layers of images that the eyes see through reflections. It provides a ground for the montage and creates a glitch that disrupts our perceptions and cognition. Through the montage, new interpretations, associations and meanings are made, and a new psychological state that merges with the mundane, the perceptual, and the alternative reality is stimulated, adding to the complexity of how we perceive and comprehend matters and ourselves.