EXTERNAL AFFECT

The monist says that my experiences and my sense of consciousness are a result of chemical and electrical activity in my brain and my body. The dualist says that there is something beyond the physical that explains my consciousness: the soul. 

The experience that I have inhabiting the world can also modelled through three dimensions:
My behavioural performance, which is measurable and can be perceived by others.
My conscious performance which includes the thoughts I process in making decisions. I can communicate these but they can never truly be understood outside of my own head.
Finally there is the affective performance which are subconscious and contextual factors that influence decision making that I’m not in control of, let alone aware of.

Maintaining these multiple constructions of myself and more in my head at the same time hasn’t helped me come to peace with my existence. Instead, these models overlap and conflict. There is a resulting dissonance around the fundamental experience of my existence that I can’t subdue.

I am creating a body of work that externalises this state of mind through the material qualities of resources I have on hand. Where thoughts and behaviour are ethereal and ephemeral, the unexpected, incidental and uncomposed behaviour of plastics, cords and metals were employed. 

To represent conscious thought, architectural steel forms emerge. These elements are then tied in with the technical conventions of jewellery making extending brooch pins and supporting armature. These elements reflect a behavioural dimension of existence and when composed with other elements, they all work together to create a complex relationship between the parts, processes and wearing that is rich for exploration and evaluation.

Engage with the work by relating every distinct thing that you perceive as a thought or process innate to your performance as a human being. Chase that thought as it interacts with surrounding elements. Through this exercise there is an opportunity to experience mental interactions through a medium that can be perceived by the senses while remaining intrinsically linked to the body.