A Map of Consciousness

[EXCERPT FROM 2008] "Whoa, what a voiiiiiiiiiiiiddddddd!! I'll go to an empty field; low winds, rustling brushes, big wide moon and an endless tapestry of stars -- but I wouldn't want to fill it with anything because I'm a black black black hole or something like that. But I EXIST and that's what matters. It matters, roight? Thanks descartes."

I took the theme of the project and twisted the definition of "map" to chronicle, through images, connections between philosophies of various psychologists in regard to the "mind and body relation". This is also a very personal work (that blockquote from above is from my journal; "I can't talk to my mother so I talk to my diary." Cheers, Office Space.)-- primarily due to the fact that I chose the philosophies on consciousness (that I find the most intriguing) to display on this map. My intent, with the creation of this map of conscious thought on conscious thought, is to confuse viewers and pose the question: Is there a correct viewpoint?

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The abstracted perspectives on this montage of buildings should imply the absence of definition and position. Due to the subject matter, I used a pastel palette to evoke a more dream-like quality.

My favorite part of the image is the Ego. This little character has squished her almost-androgynous looks into the center of the image (which, of course, implies the importance that one places on the self). The "Ego", as always, is the focal point of you, me, him, her, them. Earlier this year, I had worked on a series of digital sketches on Ego. The girl on the left is the prototype of the frumpy black-and-white Ego I have in my project. It's obvious the character lost a lot of its feminity when I stuck it into this project. 

Overall, I hope my project elicits a "Whoa, trippy" response from an audience. It certainly was a lot of fun to make. The washed-out blues, blushing pinks, beiges, and faded yellows are meant to catch the eye of the viewer as a source of solace from the blackness/nothingness/absence of color that is the background . The white (amateurish) cartographic lines and symbols imposed over the black poster ought to present the idea that it is futile to attempt to map the unknown -- the mystery that is human consciousness. I hope that I've, somewhat successfully, managed to convey (through this project) that particular sentiment.