Sometimes I see, out the corner of my eye,
The most scenes, of vivid colors,
Which are seen and unseen; engaged by the mind.
They are found in the cracks, of the shadows not in focus,
In the bright energy of light,
And when my eyes are in motion.
Not just of blue, of cyan or of green,
but an illustrious shimmer,
of several at once, in the flash of a scene.
Restricted by time, you cannot lay eyes,
On these colors of energy in disguise of plain sight.
Shift your vision, and unadjust your gaze,
Is it the ganzfeld of static, or chemicals in the brain?
Stare at the wall long enough and you'll see,
Close your eyes, sense the light,
witness them dance while you rest at ease,
With the knowledge that you cannot always,
Believe what you see.
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James Turrell, Wide Out, 1998
-James Turrell's ganzfeld light installations create an atmosphere of color, in a space that looses dimension in the brilliance of light. Seeing a color from your entire span of vision creates an other worldly environment, as if the color is absorbed through all the senses.
Ganzfeld in german means "complete field", and is a way of describing an environment similar to a whiteout in a blizzard, As Christine Kim relates, or the experience of flying in the upper atmosphere in a plane as Turrell explains. Suspended in an intense sea of color, it allows the viewer to reflect on their open perception and how the eye reacts to stimuli.
Our vision is not always trustworthy, and while skepticism in philosphy has been a common idea for a while now, in day to day business we can forget the limits of what we can learn from what we see, both about our surroundings and whats within.
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Kim, Christine. James Turrell: A Retrospective. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2013. Print, 249.