I have collaborated with Thomas Bey William Bailey on a 20-minute piece of intense hypnagogic imagery and enforced ambiguity, "Study for Image-Event Ocean".
Sound: Thomas Bey William Bailey
Video: Susana López
"Stemming from my faith in the self-revealing power of constant audio tones, and from Susana's love for Stanislav Lem's Solaris, this first collaboration between us is both a simulation and a potential catalyst of unexpected internal narratives.
From a combination of personal experience and others' testimonials, we've come to realize that the complexity of the mind is paradoxically most evident when one tries to silence it. Rigorously focusing on a single sensory point of reference only seems to make the imagination expand beyond the boundaries it is already accustomed to. The compensatory mechanisms of our remaining senses spring into action when one of them is closed off or limited - as such, the phenomenon of a constant, unyielding audible tone can fertilize mental imagery and awaken otherwise dormant sensory modalities. We have hoped to achieve, with this film, a simulation of this process for those who are not familiar with it, and a reminder of this potential for those who are. We intend to contrast a central audio "focus point" with a shifting, radiant, and perhaps incomprehensible sea of image-events to demonstrate how complementary, rather than contradictory, these different forms of sensory impression are". Thomas Bey William Bailey
