It was never about the art.

It was always about you, the observer.

Me ?

Yes, this is what I discovered spending the past 6 years residing in and out my own 360° artworks on a regular basis.

You, the one thing you can be pretty sure exists, is the one thing it has always been about.

The You, that has been observing your-self all this time,
The You, that suddenly awakes when you find that gap of silence in nature.

So when I say ‘observer’, I’m looking for the one that is experiencing itself and life through you.

Ok, I see, but how ?

So, how I see it, for the creator of the artwork ( in this case me ) constructing a thing to be experienced by an observer ( in this case a 360° artwork ) has only but one goal, which is providing a point in space where the observer can find the self in all honesty and glory.

I believe that the awe we experience when we stand in front an artwork is always a reflection of ourselves, one that returns from our own projection onto the object. It is an emotional translation of the result of perceiving our own perspective we cast upon ‘reality’.

So, the love and astonishment that returns to us from the surface of the artwork in fact originally comes from ourselves the moment we cast our gaze upon it.

It is my understanding that the artist merely constructs the object and when the visitor experiences the work, this is where the art happens.

The observer becomes the subject while the art happens within the self.

So, when the observer turns it’s attention upon an artwork this is when something is triggered, but what or how in fact is triggered ?

Is it the absence of the artist who makes space for the observer to come in, that allows the co-creation of the experience ?

Is it the moment where to observer finds a new sense of self in the void that was created by the artwork. Or is it in the newness of the moment we can truly see who or what we are ?

The answers to these questions are what I have found to be true, specifically when you enter a 360° artwork and experience it from within.

Now, when I say ‘within’, I mean what is possible only by intentionally making use of the hardware a.k.a. the VR headset. This allows us to fully grasp the effect of an artwork which is constructed on a 360° spherical canvas.

This action enables you to project your self automatically in this space, and without any virtual identity or 3D avatar attached to the self, you can freely experience the empty space that you are.

Here, the observer finds the self in the midst of the artwork quite literally and straight forward. One could say it’s almost too simple to be true.

( I’m diving deeper into this rabbithole right here in this article : The Void )