Keratoconic and (de)formed vision: Re-thinking the limits of perspectival drawing

Abstract

In this project the limitations of perspectival drawing are revised and reconsidered through a particular visual (dis)ability: keratoconus. Perspectival representation is based not only on a single and immobile eye, but also on an ‘able’ eye. The de-formation of keratoconic vision offers a new means to consider the perspectival drawing by extending beyond the limitations of its structure. The degenerative keratoconic eye thus calls attention to the intricate mechanism of sight and to the eye’s machinic functioning. By referring to Creative Evolution by Henri Bergson and The Large Glass by Marcel Duchamp it becomes possible to articulate the nuanced relations between the complexity of the eye as a complex structure and the simplicity of its unitary function. Through keratoconic vision, one experiences the formations and (de)formations of the visual image due to the eyes’ functioning and dysfunctioning. This then leads to the search for an alternative medium that is similar to such a nuanced embodied visual experience. The interval between the machinations of vision and the simplicity of its function is more closely resembled through the visual experience of the stereoscope. The digitization of the stereoscope further unfolds this notion of the durational interval that lies between the machinations of vision and their unitary function, increasingly veering towards the former. Emerging digital stereoscopic imaging begin to utilize feedback and interaction and thus produce new ways to imagine the complexity of the eye(s) and visuality more broadly.