NSCAD exhibit tests boundaries of inkblot tests
Student Andrew Maize aims to connect art and science
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A participant responds to the ambient sounds and digitally projected inkblot test. Photo: Erin Graham
The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design gave one student the opportunity to showcase a project at the Anna Leonowens Gallery during Halifax's recent nighttime art festival.
The gallery put out a call to students offering a two-week spot that would cover Nocturne: Art at Night on Oct. 15.
Tonia Di Risio, director of the Anna Leonowens Gallery, said that they were looking for "an exhibition that would engage the public." They received many submissions and decided on psycho-cymatic by Andrew Maize.
Maize designed what he calls an "experimental interactive installation." It opened on Oct. 11, just prior to Nocturne, in a small room at the back of the gallery and continued to be displayed until this week.
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An example inkblot taken from the project website
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- psycho-cymatic project website
The concept couples the famous Rorschach inkblot tests with the study of visual sound known as cymatics.
The exhibition is a multimedia presentation that engages each viewer individually. The audience lines up outside the performance space and enters one at a time. About 200 people saw the installation during the night of Nocturne.
Once inside, each person is shown inkblot tests on a projection screen that react to the ambient sounds being played in the background. They are then asked to say their response into a microphone.
During Nocturne the lineup to get into the exhibit was talkative and boisterous. As the clusters of friends reached the front, the atmosphere became more serious as audience members were separated from those they came with. One couple indicated that their date night was suddenly interrupted by a brief trip to the therapist.
What Maize describes as a "clinical" atmosphere contributes to this combined study and demonstration of the creative mind. On his website, Maize explains that the project "poses the question of the validity and objectivity of the controversial, yet still widely used form of psychodiagnostic projective testing, the Rorschach Inkblot test." The overall effect is to marry art and science.
This year was the fourth annual festival and there were more than 20,000 people in attendance. Volunteers organize the event, which aims to support existing arts communities in the city and to foster new appreciation for art in everyday life.
NSCAD has maintained a close relationship with Nocturne throughout the festival's brief existence. Maize has participated for the past three years in various ways.
One year Maize worked with the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, which is located next to NSCAD's Port Campus and also participates in Nocturne. In this way, the annual event helps integrate NSCAD and its students with the larger Halifax arts and culture scene.
Part of what makes NSCAD unique is that it hosts the Anna Leonowens Gallery, which caters primarily to students, alumni and faculty. For this year's Nocturne, the gallery offered works by a visiting artist and a faculty member, in addition to Maize's exhibit. "It was really important to us to have a student," said Di Risio.
Maize said he and his classmates are fortunate to be at one of the few art schools in the country that offers these kinds of outlets for students.
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