phantoms

eeedg // large-format generative art

What does the word 'phantom' suggest to you? Probably a white figure, perhaps draped, masked or otherwise obscured. Yet no genuine photograph of a phantom has ever been taken, and most of us cannot point to any particular origin of these characteristics. Thus `phantom' is an emergent concept, a product of culture. If we accept that some observers have seen phantoms, in their mind's eye or otherwise, then somewhere in the space of possibilities lay true pictures of phantoms. This series is an attempt to explore those possibilities. I hope that somewhere in this space are the phantoms that resonate with you.

Each Phantom is a fully-periodic 6s film. Some phantoms can be seen returning to the void from whence they came; others struggle to stay in the human domain. Most are rendered naturalistically; others appear as they might in a dream, a nightmare, or a psychedelic hallucination.

Thus is the straightforward interpretation of Phantoms. But 'phantom' plays a double role here. Since 'phantom' is an emergent concept, our impression of any particular Phantom is only given in small part by the film itself: we are also seeing a product of every related experience in our lives. And the more obscure, the more noisy the film, the less information we get from the film itself; this void is necessarily filled by interpretation. Our brain naturally sees human features in abstract forms. What pattern of arcs suggests an eye? What bending of lines suggests an elbow? Are the phantoms in the world, or in our mind?

We are thus led to the paradoxical conclusion that the epitome of 'phantom' is the Phantom that is just barely interpretable as such, whose vague forms are most suggestive. I have tried to create Phantoms such that some of them walk this line of interpretation.