Black Box

2021 (book board, vellum, found objects and materials)

Black Box is a book with an accompanying case that doubles as a display apparatus. The piece was constructed to address the practical problem of how to display an art form based on hands-on interaction within a gallery, and in the process explores themes of visibility, mental constructs, and the practice of psychology.

Statement

In the sciences, the term black box refers to a system whose inner workings are a mystery to the observer. It can only be understood in terms of inputs and outputs with no understanding of the mechanisms behind it. Psychology operates on similar premises: the inner workings of the mind are theorized based on observable behavior, without necessarily understanding the lived experience behind it.Black Box highlights the difficulty inherent in this kind of observation.

The box has been constructed according to the artist’s cranial measurements, calling back to the Victorian psychological practice of phrenology (with all its conceptual biases, bigotries, and inaccuracies). The intuitively-constructed assemblage inside the box is only visible through a peephole in the top. The only available point of reference the audience has for the interior of the box is a book that catalogues the raw materials the assemblage is made from. The book lists them according to amount used and, through its organization, suggests their basic relationships to each other.

The process is extremely methodical, yet the book is the most human object available to the audience; the loose threads reflect the fact that it was made by a person, despite the sterility of its contents. The use of cranial measurements to construct the book and the “black box” call back to the Victorian psychological practice of phrenology, emphasizing the man-made conceptual biases, bigotries, and inaccuracies inherent in creating an “objective” minimalist form. On the other hand, the intuitive assemblage reflecting unfiltered human expression is completely hidden within the black box. The audience is forced to confront their own observation and question just how much the structures they create to organize reality actually reflect what they can’t see.