The reflection is one of my great inspirations. I have been interested in the way light reflects or how it is sparkles on water. Because of its ability to produce repetitive images, it creates a mysterious vision which is like standing between endless spaces of reality and makes belief. When a mirror meets light (which travels so fast and in an unpredictable way in some case), together they create an unusual visionary effect. So a mirror is the most common model for secular light reflection, it is an interesting object that I've always found mysterious and have always wanted to explore from a different point of view of.
Mirrors have always occupied an interesting area in our lives, beliefs and dreams for a long time. Personally, they are very special objects for me because I`ve come across them in many fairy tale stories since I was very young. Fairy tales that have a mirror playing a
central role led me to have interesting insights about mirrors. If you take Snow White and the Snow Queen for example, the queen has a mirror that can communicate with people.
Another good example of a fairy tale with a mirror is Beauty and the Beast. The mirror is able to show whatever its possessors want. There are several other stories and films that have mirrors playing a very important role and even some famous paintings show this fascination with mirrors and reflections such as Venus by Diego Velazquez and Narcissus by Caravaggio.
I believe mirrors a more than just a means of seeing the self, they allow one to see something unexpected. As shown by these fairy tale stories, a mirror is an object which allows people to broaden their dreams and imagination. People are willing to reflect something new and unexpected through mirrors even though it might be not real. Richard L. Gregory stated that 'What we see, and what we know, or believe, can be very different, as science advances, Differences between perceived appearances and accepted realities become ever greater'(2004) This is why reflection inspires me a lot and it is my dream to bring those dreams into reality life through my project.
Reflection is the change in the direction of a wave front at an interface between two different media so that returns into the medium which it originated. Reflection and mirrors have always occupied an interesting part in the daily life of humans and I believe it is not only an object to reflect light but also our dreams and hopes. There are historical records relating to beliefs about the mirrors.
It is clear that people believe that the reflections and illusions of mirror create a gate to a new world to our unconsciousness or a world of dreams. An illusion is in effect the most distinctive visual characteristic of dreams and dream-like hallucinations which can create a new dimension of reality. Illusions often occur in our daily lives, Oscar Wilde once said that 'an illusion is the first of all pleasures'. Thus, applying an illusion to specific spaces could provide viewers with visual delights and depth of space.
In this regard, discussions and experiments on optics are very essential because optical effects are able to create reflections, dreamlike visions and hallucinations. Referring to Mc Graw Hill 'Optics is the branch of physics which studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interaction with matter and the construction of instruments that use of detect it'(2002) The study of Optics has been one the most fascinating subjects throughout the history of science.
There is also another interesting approach to dreams and hallucinations known as surrealism. Surrealism is a cultural movement launched in 1924, it is strongly influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud who first identified the unconscious in the human mind. More importantly, Freud first studied dreams and believed that dreams revealed the workings of the unconscious. They regard their work as an expression of human experience, in its personal, cultural or social aspects by feeling people from what they saw as false rationality. Automatism was the Surrealist term for Freud's technique of free association, which was used to reveal the unconscious mind. Working with freeassociation, dream analysis, and the unconscious was developing methods to broaden their imagination for them.
To move closer to my dream, there is a need for a scientific approach in order to build a strong theoretical foundation as well as adding value to the project. In general, artists and scientists are concerned about the same issues. Historically art, science and technology have not always been separate. Before the middle ages, art was a wide-ranging concept that included simple skills to all kinds of knowledge and accomplishments. According to Jacoxb van t'Hoff, 'Scientists most innovative were all the time an artist, musician, or a poet'(2003). It clearly shows the close relationship between science and art. There was no boundary between scientist and artist, Leonardo da Vinci was famous for his master piece paintings as well as scientific
inventions. In modern art, the tendency of science is more prominent than in any other period. Kinetic Art, Op Art, Laser Art, Holography Art and Digital Art prove that art and science can coexist.
I therefore believe that innovative designs on light and reflection, which are inspired by mirrors and dreams, with the close collaboration with technology will generate new ideas that may be socially important for our future. I ardently hope that, via my project, co-operation between optics and textiles can be encouraged and stimulated. Intense intellectual creativity needs to be communicated with humanising activities of creative designs so as to bring a balance to the ways we experience our current existence and imagine our future.