James Turrell works with light in a manner that challenges our perceptual experience. It re-defines the very nature of seeing by beautifully collaborating sight with the other senses to create impressions of spiritual awakening or re-birth. Light is no longer a vehicle of information but rather is the content in and of itself. This creates an experience where the quality and sensation of light is given a sense of tactility, so profound that the experiencer can almost touch the light.
One of his projects, called Skyspaces, consist of structures with an opening in the architecture that rely on this juncture between the interior and exterior space in order to bring the sky down to the plane of the ceiling. This literal opening allows the viewer a metaphorical access into their own perception which is then translated to the sensory impressions of the entire body. This links the viewers subjective visual experience with the outside world that’s looked at and the inner world that’s looked into. This creates an interesting relationship, because the viewer is essentially peering into a framed infinity. One that is not static, but rather shares a transcendental conversation with the viewers body, mind, and soul. These interesting explorations contradict the preconceived notion of light as an immaterial source of illumination. Instead of using light to reveal other things, Turrell focuses on the way light can become the revelation itself. This emphasis on the physicality of light is perhaps the reason why its influence is so profound, since it is literally introducing new emotions and sensations we have never experienced before.
Another example is the Alien Exam, which consists of a six-sided chamber with a semi-spherical dome that is reminiscent of spaces used for medical experiments and cult structures of ancient civilizations. The subject is shown in by two attendants who are in complete control of the alternation in the light phenomena. After the subject is seated, they perceive light through the dome not as an optical impression but as a phenomenon that envelops and affects their entire body. The structure of the space is very interesting because it requires the subject to climb a few stairs before laying down on the solid table. This act clearly references an altar, where the subject is metaphorically sacrificing themselves; their perceptions, psychology, emotions, and desires to the magnificent light above them.
Initially, Turrell’s exam room creates a Ganzfeld effect, which is a sort of disorientation or discomfort that occurs when a viewer gazes steadily at a completely undifferentiated, monochrome color field devoid of forms and movement, without a center and without edges. After a while, the viewer starts to lose visible external and internal points of reference. It is as if the eye and brain are indistinguishable, and one becomes immersed within color sensations that are compared to visions that appear in moments of euphoria or intoxication. Slowly, these changes in color also become indistinguishable; and the overriding impression is of an autonomous light continuum. This shows how when faced with light, all other visual stimuli, such as color, are subordinated. All these different experiences leave the viewer completely and solely immersed in the activity of seeing. Even the moods that are induced are ways to connect this pure act of seeing with other, more familiarized conditions.
A final example that demonstrates this complete perceptual immersion is the Light Space project. These floating projections made of even, colored light give off the illusion of depth. A three-dimensional illusion that is essentially considered a ‘clear space’, or a space we can step into-visually and conceptually. This completely shatters our tangible understanding of space by re-defining it into something that can be imagined. This is primarily triggered by its seductive brightness, which offers the observer, standing in that dark room an opportunity to escape to a different world.
[method acting] 