Colleen Woolpert

April 4th, 2018
4:30


I was really excited to go to Colleen's talk when I heard about her works, firstly, because having a twin has always sounded mystery and amazing to me as the single child; also because her concept is about optical illusions,  and it sounds interesting.

Colleen and her twin were born in Halloween--just imagine the fun they've had! I don't know why, but after I got this info about her, everything she talks about and presents just became even more mysterious. Colleen expressed the identity confusion she and her twin had when they were little: she was curious and confused about who exactly she is int his world, and the question "who am I" has always existed. Her twin does not have binocular vision, and it becomes the biggest essential difference between Colleen and her sister, and because of this magical relationship with her twin, she says that she is "able to see doubles". Colleen has grown interest in optical illusions and the "motion picture machines" called "mutoscopes" from almost 200 years ago, and started to make things that resemble this machine: a kind of glasses (I forgot the name for them) that makes you see the images in its "3-D" version. Personally, I think this idea is awesome. Photographers are always seen as people who only capture a flat side of reality, but the truth is more like images can be bent to trick our own eyes, and photographers should not be limited to only emphasizing the flatness of the world, but also should be emphasizing the way human perceive reality: is it real, is it not? is it flat, is it not?