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"First, I am dealing with no object. Perception
is the object. Secondly, I am dealing with no image, because
I want to avoid associative, symbolic thought. Thirdly, I am
dealing with no focus or particular place to look. With no object,
no image and no focus, what are you looking at? You are looking
at you looking." James Turrell
James Turrell studied optics and perceptual psychology in college,
but he gravitated towards art as his curiosity led him to investigate
light itself.
His thinking
and
work are compelling to scientists, artists, and laypeople because
his understanding of light comes from a personal process of investigation,
resulting in works of astounding beauty.
In this
Webcast
of a lecture on September 16, 2003, sponsored
by the
Sonoma County
Museum
, Turrell discusses his experiences manipulating pure
light and how it became his artistic medium. He reveals how this
early work led him to discover Roden Crater in Arizona and to
create his subsequent lifelong project of transforming the crater
into an astronomical observatory.
(The lecture was originally delivered to a live audience at
Sonoma State University in Sonoma, California.)
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