Different Lens - to not see- see

I was interested in how I was using this disc, pinched between the over sized tweezers to provide an extended reach. I have often referred to the magnifying lens (pictured)  in the house at Kettles Yard and the way that it makes the ‘ordinary’ of the plants ‘extraordinary’ through an enlarged view, and a seat to see this shift in focus. In my work, I discuss the significance of the way the lens is a material metaphor for practice, a way to look again, see with more detail, look at the moments that might be missed. Tim Ingold discusses this in relation to practice-based approaches to research as ‘re- search’ and the ability to look again with attention. However, in the Fitzwilliam I had moved from the exaggerated lens to a silencing one (created by the felt disc). At times in order to find our own voice we need to blur or tune down what is around us, find our way in. A territorial act perhaps. This  can be understood as an extension from us and  towards others. The relationship forms between the viewer, and the space of the encounter through the pedagogical art object.
 
I intentionally use this reciprocal prosthetic action between bodies, matter, and objects as the basis for making the pedagogical prosthetics, that is, pedagogical art objects –so mutual entanglements enable the extension of thoughts into things and things into thoughts, a relationship where everything can participate in what Massumi terms as a ‘mutual implication; it is not clear who is used by whom’ (2002, p.106).