Barrier behind the Unattainable
Assessment one lead me to question whether or not desire is in fact making us more content, creating a positive state of mind, or adversely have a negative effect on our well-being by creating a false sense of happiness. It came down to questioning whether or not the way in which our mind is programmed truly allows us to reach a full degree of a content, satisfied mind set.
While researching further into this conceptual idea for assessment two, l was largely influenced by the philosophical words of both the Designer, Stefan Sagmeister, as well as Philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Sagmeister suggests that “I don’t think evolution built us that way that we reach permanent happiness.. if we would reach permanent happiness there would be no compass anymore.. so l don’t think it is possible or maybe even necessary to reach permanent happiness.. but l think we can hone our skills that point into that direction”, and on a similar note, Deleuze backs this idea up by suggesting ‘the object of desire is the object of desire as long as it remains unattainable’.
Both perspectives lead me to ponder on the idea that as we desire something, we are in fact becoming more distant to the object and are unable to attain it, due to a cluster of ‘things’ surrounding this object, acting as a barrier against permanent happiness.
When deciding ways in which l could portray this concept and push it further, l was torn between choosing one object in which l desired, deconstructing it and working out why it is unattainable, or, do the opposite. I decided to pick one living thing, that being flora, and analyse it’s most basic desires in which are permanently attainable - that is, energy from the sun, soil and carbon dioxide, etc. I have attempted to create a representation of our unreachable desires through progressively cutting off the achievable desires in which a plant simplistically receives throughout its life. This has been done through a number of uniquely different ways, such as cutting light sources in which draws a ‘barrier’ from their ‘at-hand’, readily accessible desires.
Inspired by the materialistic choices and interdisciplinary approaches made by artists Robin Rhode, Stefan Sagmeister and Kao Flora, l have created my body of work through the combined use of Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as utilizing items such flora to encompass and express the unattainable desire through representations.
Our weekly theme in week 5 was desire, in which discussed was the idea that the desire of ideas, concepts, materials, and methods can drive projects into unpredictable and profound territories. I was able grasp a deeper understanding of the term desire, primarily through the writings of Deleuze. As well as this, the weekly resources from this week lead me to research further into Stefan Sagmeister’s philosophy which allowed me to move further into the core of my question.
For my final work, l decided to relate my photographic images to the desire of light in which flora needs to survive - light sources are not ‘unattainable’ to flora, although my work aims at reflecting the decline of this so called ‘desire’, progressively taking it away until it becomes unattainable. This mirrors all of our desires, in which all are unreachable due to ‘things’ around these desires acting as a barrier against our permanent happiness.
My photography is documented through a film still in black and white, in order to create a sense of progression and ‘story’ just like a film would do. This progression shows a movement from the simplistic attainable light source as the desire, moving towards this unachievable need. The photographic images consist of flora with holes poked through, to be held up to the sun to create an intriguing effect. I have then duplicated three of these images, editing each to clearly show this negative progression.
Reflecting back to the initial question on desire, Gilles Deleuze conceives desire as a constructive force: desire produces its own objects. My response to this perspective would be that we are designed to continually desire an ‘object’ or ‘thing’ although if we were to attain all of these desires, what would be the point in moving forward in life if there were no force, no further push to succeed.
