This project proceeds from the hypothesis that Dr. Rorschach's ink blots were meant to be sectional representations of a continuous"space" of the psyche. This theory developed while considering the timed sequential presentation of the 10 standard inkblot test plates to the analysand as if they comprised an extremely slow movie played frame by frame for interpretation.

Each of the nine abutting models in the series explores the space between two of Rorschach's standard blots.

Making up the "missing" space between the slowly played frames, sections between the standard 10 blots were derived using video and digital morphing tools. Then each frame of the resulting video was separated and generated a significant topography of elements, after which these elements were arranged in digital modelling space along a time line.

The surfaces were stretched over the traced topographical elements and interlocked the resulting shells.

The models abut each other to form a continuous whole.

The models form a "video played in space".

These and the following images are stills from an animated digital video which explores the 9 models.

Since the models are constructed of interlocking hollow shells, they have complex internal cavities.

The models are being prepared for manufacture using the process of stereolithography.

 

Space of the Psyche Project

A TIME-BASED INVESTIGATION INTO A POSSIBLE STRUCTURE OF THE PSYCHE

 

"The dissecting of the brain interested me particularly, and I joined to it all kinds of reflections about the localization and cutting up of the Soul..."

Dr. Hermann Rorschach, 1918

The Space of the Psyche

If presented with ten slices of a brain, knowing that each of them is a sequential section of that brain, you can imagine how you might you go about reconstructing the brain's entire form from these sections.

What, then, if you were presented with sectional representations of a psyche, could you similarly construct a form for that psyche?

This is the question posed by architect Alan Moonan Bruton in his Space of the Psyche project, inspired by research into the history and structure of the Rorschach Ink Blot Psycho-Diagnostic Test Series.

The Space of the Psyche project proposes a structured formal template for a psyche, associating it with the form of the brain. The operative hypothesis in the project is that the 10 standard ink blots in Dr. Rorschach's test series can be seen as sequential sectional representations of a psyche, aconjecture inspired by Dr. Rorschach1s writings on his development of the series.

The project develops a materialistic view of the psyche, taking it out of the realm of the psychological and placing it within the realm of the authored, perceptible, and affective artifacts of culture.

As the primary generative medium of the project is video, the project can be seen as a "concrete video" played in space. Constructed using digital topographic, modeling, image analysis, and film editing tools, the Space of the Psyche Project consists of video, models, and drawings describing a contiguous set of nine spatial modules. Each module defines the space between two of the 10 blots, utilizing these blots literally as construction documents.

The project's intention is the structuring of a space into which one could project oneself to think reflectively about the interactions between self, space, memory, and the mechanisms of perception and projection.

©1997-2002 Alan Moonan Bruton