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Friction, Failure and the Clinical Palette
Friction, Failure and the Clinical Palette
Welcome to The Gaze Interrupted. After twenty-five years as a UX designer and researcher trained to create frictionless, unbiased experiences, a diagnosis of Thyroid Eye Disease (TED) forced a collision among my UX, artistic practices, and lived realities. Supported by a National Lottery Project Grant from Arts Council England, this R&D project is my investigation of gazes. Probing how we see and how we are seen affects our perceptions of ourselves. I'll challenge the privileging of vision, the clinical gaze, and the male gaze; investigate the spiritual deprioritisation of vision, basketry, and weaving; and examine how computers 'see'. Who knows where else I will go over the next year, but I want to take you with me.
These dispatches will become a newsletter and will be hosted on Substack. They will serve as an open laboratory to document the messy process, the material friction, and the inevitable failures.
The Studio: Defining a Clinical Palette
The Studio: Defining a Clinical Palette
This month in the studio, I have been working on some initial ideas and have defined a colour palette for the first woven forms:
Outer space: A blue-black.
Clinical: A pale greenish-blue (think NHS walls).
Lightbulb: A bright yellow veering towards green.
Yellowing: A pale flesh colour veering towards jaundice.
Stain: A seeping blood red.
The development of this palette reminded me of Japanese colour naming, known as Iro (色), which often describes the atmosphere, season, or a specific mood rather than just the hue. (Watch here)
Having cyphers for colours will help me move towards one of the central tenets of my project, which is influenced by Beyond the Visual - to develop art that is beholdable beyond vision. Moving forward, I want to explore how a visual colour palette translates directly into a haptic, sonic or otherwise non-visual one, asking how a viewer might physically feel the difference between the sterile coldness of "clinical" and the visceral weight of "stain" through texture, weight, temperature, pressure or a plethora of other senses.
The Laboratory: Data and My Secret Mentors
The Laboratory: Data and My Secret Mentors
On the technical front, I have successfully got my data pipeline up and running. I've prioritised privacy, security and anonymity with my test data and generated a 'point cloud' of concepts using The Oculofacial Podcast as test data. I have an incredible technical mentor, a researcher/tech/artist with a deep interest in the potential of AI for creative practices in new and exciting ways.
I also just had my first session with my creative mentor (whose identity will remain private for now). I showed up with my safety net of a structured agenda, which we ignored and went for a windy, two-hour walk instead, where we discussed my project, the creative process, and admired pylons and squeaky trees. My artistic/creative mentor is the backbone of this project, reminding me of the necessity of letting the art be what it needs to be and of loosening the constraints of my previous works.
Finally, I have an incredible clinical advisor, whom I’ll also keep as a surprise for now.
Although I can't name them just yet, they are truly a dream team I’m incredibly grateful to have the support of, as well as the support of Arts Council England, at this pivotal moment in my artistic career.
Coming up: Discussion Guides, Psychologist Reviews, Getting Deeper
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