The Addition of Absence

As I was going through finishing up the reading for this week (Chapter 1 of the book Digital Art by Christine Paul) I came two artworks by Charles Cohen that particularly interested me. The inkjet prints featured on page 38 of the text each describe a style that focuses on absence as the key in perception for the observer. Due to the cutout forming a state of absence, the viewer’s mind forces a connection to be made and thus fills-in what does not otherwise exist.

This tactic actually stems from a branch of Psychology all the way down to the art of the optical illusion itself. You see, our brains process what we see in a manner that relates objects to familiarity, organizing pieces of shapes and patterns in a “whole” piece that makes more sense to us. Cohen plays off of this trait in his works by tricking our minds into seeing posed, but imaginary people.

In the end, many of the works of art we have today follow interesting principles of psychology that have existed and been manipulated since the early 1900s (some depictions include the Kanizsa triangle and the Ehrenstein illusion ). This interests me greatly because although the works are digitally produced, could they truly be considered “New Media,” when there is nothing particularly ‘new’ about them?

Nonetheless, I still admire several of Cohen’s pieces. My personal favorites included in an album listed as “analog time” on his website where each seems to have this particular void that you can feel if you look at them for long enough. For me those three photos leave my mind guessing exactly what his inspiration was or what emotion he was trying to convey more so than any of his other works. Loneliness? Emptiness? Inner longing? The viewer was probably never meant to know for sure.