For me, this study is more of a personal matter. On the one hand, I’m trying to understand how this (support of the war) happened, and on the other, I’m trying to help myself mentally and physically cope with this trauma.
In order to, refute my stance, I will formulate the main aspects of my research.
“When I think of my body and ask what
it does to earn that name, two things stand out.
It moves. It feels.”
Brian Massumi
Life and death
In February 2022, Russia moved the war, which began in 2014, to a new level. Instead of resolving the issue at the political level, it always seemed to me that this is what governing bodies exist for, to resolve conflicts through negotiations and diplomacy, the government decided to start bombing cities and towns in a neighbouring country. It would seem that everything is very simple, some attack, others defend, some are bad, others are good... But gradually it became clear that not only was it not clear who was actually defending himself, but the closest people on earth began to convince me of the opposite. In order not to completely go into cognitive dissonance - when two realities contradict each other, I took a break from the whole world, including from the “closest” people, in order to independently understand the current situation. This pause has been going on for more than two years now, and I was able to draw some conclusions for myself.
At the moment of conflict, not only military but also moral, all feelings and emotions become aggravated and exposed.
One of my very first and most important conclusions and unshakable principles is the life of man and everything that surrounds him - animals, nature, planet. As I wrote earlier in my other Essay, this principle is not supported by military and fascist societies, since they have a cult of death for higher principles. Or David Welch, Jo Fox (eds.) (2012) in the book Justifying War, Propaganda, Politics and the Modern Age (Palgrave Macmillan, p. 8) writes “that cultural memory, and specifically the cult of history and its heroes, was mobilized to justify military action” and "to give death on the battlefield meaning and historical significance beyond a personal or individual tragedy". By extolling the heroes of WWII and holding military parades on May 9 in Russia, for decades the cult of the hero who died for the salvation of his homeland was supported and promoted.
It turns out that someone in the country has absorbed this idea, but someone has not?! How did it happen that it prevented everyone from being subjugated?
Is my state’s propaganda to blame for everything?
Propaganda, on the other hand, is a deliberate and systematic attempt to manipulate public opinion and shape beliefs. It involves the dissemination of information, often biased or misleading, in order to influence attitudes and behaviour.
Propaganda is a form of persuasion that works through language, images and narratives and aims to control how people think and feel about certain issues or ideas.
Synaesthesia and Affect (Perception, Trauma)
The unexpected new reality turned out to be a huge trauma for me, causing memories, reflection and pain. «Culture shapes the expression of traumatic stress.» (Kolk, 2014 p. 216) written in Bessel van der Kolk (2014) The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Does this mean that this is the same culture that is now killing people in Ukraine, this is the same culture that gave me pangs of conscience and responsibility for these actions. Yes. Certainly.
Now imagine you see a person. His hair, creamy-pearlescent skin, you can distinguish the material and colour of his clothes. And he also has an aura. If you look closely, every person has a glowing halo around their head. I'm not lying, but I see it. Therefore, for me, there was never a question of why saints are depicted on icons with a halo.
“On the synaesthete’s brain only, there are darker blobs over area v4. These blobs represent brain activity at the moment the scans were taken. V4 usually responds when people are shown colours but there were no colours in the environment—test-subjects were simply reading black graphemes. However, these graphemes triggered synaesthesia for the test-subject on the left, giving the corresponding brain activity in v4. There was no similar activation for the control subject on the right (i.e. no blobs superimposed on v4).” From Simner Julia, Synaesthesia: A Very Short Introduction (2019) Oxford University Press p.8 chapter 2.
An MRI photograph of the brain shows that synesthetes involuntarily have colour reactions in the brain to certain aspects that do not cause such cross-reactions in normal people. Thus, someone sees an ordinary person with a luminous addition to his head, and this is a physiological fact. Further to this fact I add the increased passion for religion in my culture. Therefore, oddly enough, I tried from an early age to believe that all people are a little saints, they have a halo over their heads, one just needs to see it.
Could this perception of people have caused me more severe trauma when in February 2022, these same people began to attack me (in private messages and on social media) for speaking out loudly against the war?! In any case, fierce emptiness and tears have been my companions throughout 2022.
It turns out that synesthesia greatly influenced my emotional state, which was also under the influence of external affects, which at the time of the start of the war, I could not determine. Brian Massumi's concept of affect refers to the pre-linguistic and non-conscious forces that shape our experiences and interactions with the world.
Affect as Intensity: Affect is about the intensity or "charge" of an experience, rather than the specific content of that experience. It's the raw, immediate feeling of something, before you've had a chance to interpret or label it.
Affect as Surrounding Atmosphere: Massumi sometimes describes affect as an ambient or surrounding atmosphere that permeates our environment. It's the "vibe" or "feeling" of a situation that we pick up on.
Affect as Influence: Affect can also be understood as the way in which external stimuli or information influence us on a bodily or emotional level, even before we're consciously aware of it. It's about how things resonate with us on a deeper, more visceral level.
Brian Massumi also compares affect with synesthesia, but in my opinion, even though both concepts are uncontrolled and immediate, they remain completely different.
“Affect is this two-sideness as seen from the side of the actual thing, as couched in its perceptions and cognitions. Affect is the virtual as point of view, provided the visual metaphor is used guardedly. For affect is synesthetic, implying a participation of the senses in each other: the measure of a living thing’s potential interactions is its ability to transform the effects of one sensory mode into those of another. (Tactility and vision being the most obvious but by no means the only examples; interoceptive senses, especially proprioception, are crucial.) Affects are virtual synesthetic perspectives anchored in (functionally limited by) the actually existing, particular things that embody them. The autonomy of affect is its participation in the virtual. Its autonomy is its openness. Affect is autonomous to the degree to which it escapes confinement in the particular body whose vitality, or potential for interaction, it is.” p. 38 Brian Massumi, 2021, Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Duke University Press
Synaesthesia is a phenomenon that differs from each person and is inseparable from it, while affect is a general concept that can be isolated and gotten rid of. This is precisely why it is important to learn to distinguish your reaction from an imposed one. If everyone begins to listen to their own feelings and can isolate and distinguish ideas, atmosphere and information from internal motivations, then this will allow everyone to be a little happier and perhaps people will not want to support war in any of its manifestations.
Slavoj Zizek in The Sublime Object of Ideology on the other hand, he claims that ideology is a set of unconscious assumptions and practices that shape our perception of reality. Zizek focuses on ideology as a form of unconscious fantasy that structures our perceptions and desires, while Massumi emphasizes affect as prelinguistic and unconscious forces that shape our experience and interaction with the world. Zizek's analysis of ideology tends to focus more on how social and political structures influence individual subjectivity, often through explicit forms of indoctrination and manipulation. Massumi, on the other hand, explores affect as a more diffuse and amorphous force that operates at a level below conscious thought, influencing our experience in subtle and nuanced ways.
Both Zizek's and Massumi's ideas about the unconscious and embodied dimensions of experience resonate with synaesthetic experience, in which sensory perceptions intertwine in unexpected and often involuntary ways. Although their work does not explicitly address synesthesia, it can be seen as an example of how affect, ideology, and subjectivity are shaped by complex and often nonlinear processes.
I couldn’t work and I had a feeling of emptiness, a vacuum, a state of weightlessness in the blackness. My father told me that he would bomb my city. This collapse in my mind took place in the red work cut through by a bent metal lattice with the remains of concrete on it.
Thus, the unbearable dissonance of the perception of one person in my head resulted in the dissonance of the colour field I adored, forever cut and torn.
Now, two years later, I find a connection between my studio work and childhood memories of working in my father's workshop with a saw, hammer, screwdriver, nails, and sandpaper. I didn’t have any brushes or paints on hand at that time. I simply found old wooden tools and utensils and repurposed them for my room.
Perhaps this childhood memory and my new trauma came together in a surreal mix and allowed my intuition to work.
I perceive strong emotions, and events through colour sensations in the body. Also sex, pain, sometimes food and music, and the glow above the head, I see all this in colour and shape. The search for self-healing and random uncontrolled ideas have been combined in my practice - the perception of events and emotions through colour, memories from childhood of working with non-traditional materials, and sensations and funny combinations from textures, and shapes from all five senses.
The atmosphere around me is like the affect of the environment, for me this place was social networks that plunged me into a vibe of despair, agony, and aggression. Added to this condition was the personal state of mind received from my parents - they seemed to abandon me because I love Germany and criticize Russia. These emotions made me feel black and broken, destroyed, devastated. So physically it began to manifest itself through the destruction of "beauty" (destroying my "beautiful" works), breaking sticks and boards and reassembling. Because what surrounded me did not correspond to my inner world. It turns out that the materials that are unusual for an artist, which I worked with in childhood and which are now in my studio, have acquired not only my personal narrative but now they will interfere with emotion and breakdown and reassembly. Painted newspapers are my sense of colour, and broken sticks are an my injury.
Other artists use the ideas of synaesthesia or utilise this feeling as a moving force for work:
Wassily Kandinsky - Kandinsky was a pioneer of abstract art and believed in the connection between colours and musical tones. He created paintings that aimed to evoke emotional responses similar to those elicited by music, exploring the idea of visualizing sound and rhythm through abstract forms and vibrant colours.
Olivier Messiaen - Although primarily known as a composer, Messiaen experienced synaesthesia, which influenced his music composition. He often associated specific colours with musical chords and utilized this sensory crossover to create pieces that were rich in chromaticism and evocative of vivid imagery.
David Hockney - Hockney's art explores the intersection of sight and sound, particularly in his series of paintings inspired by music. He has described experiencing synesthetic sensations, where he perceives colours and shapes in response to certain musical compositions, and this phenomenon has influenced his artistic practice.
Christina Seely - Seely is a contemporary artist who investigates the relationship between colour perception and sound. Through her multimedia installations, she creates immersive environments that blur the boundaries between visual and auditory experiences, inviting viewers to engage with synesthetic sensations.
Carol Steen - Steen is both an artist and a synesthete who experiences colours in response to music and other stimuli. She creates paintings and drawings that reflect her synesthetic perceptions, translating the sensory experience of sound into visual form through abstract and expressive mark-making.
This is not about unconventional materials, but about listening to yourself.
My synesthetic perceptions and memories triggered by trauma add up to the creation of highly sensual, personal, extremely physical works. There is not only a theoretical and physiological explanation for this coincidence of circumstances but also a conceptual and contextual narrative.
Through unconventional materials, recycled newspapers, building materials and old trash take on new meaning. Newspapers are a source of information and someone's opinion, collective memory, which implies my rethinking of this data through the processing of this material. In traditional academia, what I do is considered garbage. I imagine I would bring my work to my professor from the University in Moscow.
He would say that this is not art and I do it because I can’t do anything else - I can't draw a person, build a composition, or make a pencil drawing of a skeleton. I would start making excuses, showing my work from this institute, saying that I can...
And then I remember that I am 40 years old and there is no need for me to justify my actions because they are extremely justified for myself. Through my artistic practice, I finally learned that I have synaesthesia. Through research into my interests and the type of work I do, I realized that Russian culture includes fascist elements. Through understanding the trauma and my materials, I came to the conclusion that recovery comes through reflection on the past.
Everything in the world flows and changes, so the old principles and norms cannot remain the same. Academic education in Russia continues to impose old norms that do not allow students to develop and seek personal expression. Only through research and experimentation, I understood myself and the society in which I grew up. Why isn't this taught in my country? Creative schizophrenia is not allowed to develop in a totalitarian society.
The following artists can serve as an example of transferring Trauma into artworks:
Frida Kahlo - Known for her emotionally charged self-portraits, Kahlo's artworks often depicted her physical and emotional pain resulting from a bus accident and various health issues. Her paintings are deeply introspective and convey a raw, unfiltered expression of her personal trauma.
Louise Bourgeois - Bourgeois explored themes of trauma, memory, and childhood experiences in her sculptures, installations, and prints. Her iconic spider sculptures, for example, are often interpreted as symbols of maternal protectiveness and the complexities of familial relationships.
Tracey Emin - Emin's art frequently draws from her own life experiences, including traumatic events such as sexual abuse and abortion. Her confessional and autobiographical artworks, ranging from neon signs to embroidered texts, offer intimate glimpses into her psyche and personal history.
Nan Goldin - Through her candid and emotionally charged photography, Goldin documented her own life and the lives of her friends within New York's LGBTQ+ community during the 1970s and 1980s. Her work often addresses themes of addiction, love, loss, and resilience.
Kara Walker - Walker's powerful and provocative artworks confront issues of race, gender, and power dynamics, drawing from historical narratives and personal experiences. Her silhouette cutouts and large-scale installations challenge viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about America's past and present.
Digital and physical
During the armed conflict, it became clear that people were drowning in information. They stopped believing what they saw or, on the contrary, began to believe only what they had been watching for the last twenty-odd years. I realized that the development of the digital industry, and the emergence of artificial intelligence and simulations have led us to the point that we do not trust what we see through screens. And also if a person has a radically different opinion, then we don’t believe him. So my parents think that I am under "Geyropa" propaganda (from the words gay and Europe - used by pro government supporters).
This led me to think that everything that post-Internet theories preached - no matter who the author is, a copy can be more important than the original, erasing the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds, it is not clear where is reality and where is fiction, the viewer’s attention is the new currency - it all became irrelevant.
Listening to Lev Manovich's lecture, I paid special attention to digital aesthetics and how it affects us.
"Database aesthetics" influences the way we access, manipulate, and interpret cultural content. "Cultural software" shapes our perceptions and behaviours says Lev Manovich in Post-media Aesthetics, 2001. He refers to the next project: “To create LAION-Aesthetics we trained several lightweight models that predict the rating people gave when they were asked “How much do you like this image on a scale from 1 to 10?” As a result, Manovich discusses the digital aesthetics of AI, which boils down to clear, high contrast, easy-to-read, energetic, high saturation, efficient, Hollywood-style images. As a result, he gives an example of dramatic clouds with a “lovely” colour. So, I decided to try this "Hollywood Beautiful Style" colour.
As a result, these works were sought after by commercial galleries, proving that Hollywood's color aesthetic is very popular with the commercial community.
And besides this, digital reality has formed a certain standard of new digital beauty - gloss, brightness, high contrast...
In this contrast, I began to experiment with the integration of garbage into this “beauty” - to what extent will a person accept such cognitive dissonance?
In order to understand how relevant what I do is, I searched for the latest, newest theories in the field of art theory.
New trends in the development of artistic theory:
Posthumanism: This theory challenges traditional notions of the human-cantered perspective and explores the interactions between humans, animals, machines, and the environment. It considers how technology, artificial intelligence, and biotechnologies are reshaping human identity and society.
Eco-criticism: With a growing awareness of environmental issues, eco-criticism in art theory examines the relationship between art, nature, and ecological sustainability. Artists are increasingly exploring themes related to climate change, sustainability, and the human impact on the environment.
Postcolonialism: Postcolonial art theory critiques the legacies of colonialism and imperialism, highlighting the ways in which colonial histories continue to shape contemporary global relations. It examines power dynamics, cultural hybridity, and the representation of marginalized voices in art.
Queer theory: Queer theory explores gender, sexuality, and identity in art, challenging heteronormative narratives and binary categories. It considers how artists engage with queer experiences, politics, and aesthetics to subvert norms and create inclusive representations.
Network aesthetics: Network aesthetics examines the impact of digital networks and communication technologies on artistic production, distribution, and reception. It considers how artists engage with online platforms, social media, and virtual spaces to create interactive and participatory art experiences.
Algorithmic art: With the rise of artificial intelligence and algorithms, artists are exploring the creative potential of computational processes and machine learning algorithms to generate artworks. Algorithmic art challenges traditional notions of authorship and creativity, raising questions about the role of human agency in the artistic process.
Neuroaesthetics: Neuroaesthetics investigates the neural mechanisms underlying aesthetic experiences and artistic perception. By studying brain activity in response to art, researchers seek to understand how visual stimuli evoke emotions, shape preferences, and influence aesthetic judgments.
Post-digital aesthetics: Post-digital aesthetics explores the intersection of digital and analogue technologies in contemporary art practice. Artists are blending digital and physical mediums, incorporating glitches, errors, and imperfections to critique digital culture and reflect on the human condition in the digital age.
Art and activism: Artistic practices are increasingly intertwined with social and political activism, addressing issues such as racial justice, gender equality, immigration, and environmental activism. Artists are using their work as a platform for social change, activism, and raising awareness about pressing societal issues.
As a result, the world is talking about the development of digital technologies and what to do with it, the world is trying to define a person in a new environment - this is emigration, gender, relationships with artificial intelligence, and at the same time the world is thinking about how not to kill this very world.
shift to Post-Conflict Visual Culture
I know for sure that one day the war will end and then great and difficult work will begin for the whole society. I also know that the war will end somewhere, but, unfortunately, the war can also continue in another place and people will kill other people.
A long exploration of the causes of conflict, the dynamics of violence, and strategies for conflict resolution and peacebuilding will begin. Scholars and theorists will study post-conflict societies to understand issues of reconciliation, reconstruction and justice.
In addition, human rights violations will be examined and societies will try to promote reconciliation in societies transitioning from conflict or authoritarian rule to democracy. There will be truth commissions, trials, reparations, and institutional reforms to address past atrocities and promote healing.
The study of collective memory will begin, with discussions on how societies remember and honour traumatic events such as war, genocide and political violence, and the role of memory in processes of reconciliation and nation-building.
Post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization of societies affected by war or violence will begin. We will begin rebuilding infrastructure, governance institutions, economic development and solving social and political problems, addressing issues of violence and mental health problems of people returning from war.
But already now, it is necessary to work with society and make decisions taking into account the following aspects:
· People even in the same family can have different values and a global vision of the world. It comes to the point that even such basics as life and death can be perceived and valued in the same cultural group in completely different ways due to the influence of propaganda, affects and due to other phenomena and aspects.
· Affect can and should be distinguished from synaesthesia and propaganda. Since the forces of affect are pre-linguistic and pre-conscious, there is a need for someone to tell a person about this, since he himself will not get to this point. At the same time, both affect and propaganda can be identified and a person can be given the opportunity to be conscious of his choices and behaviour.
· Trauma stimulates strong emotions that can become a new way of thinking about things. Through the search for healing in art, as well as through artistic exploration, one can create a personal statement to which the viewer will respond on a visceral level. In other words, pain stimulates a stronger output.
· During the period of severe injuries, atypical types of reactions and artwork will most likely appear. Because the power of emotions is so strong and concentrated that it is impossible to remain within the same framework, the critical mind will break down the old and reassemble it into the new unconventional.
· It is necessary to accept the irrevocable influence of the digital world on our perception.
· Everything that post-Internet theories preached - no matter who the author is, a copy can be more important than the original, erasing the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds, it is not clear where is reality and where is fiction, the viewer’s attention is the new currency - it all became irrelevant.
· It is necessary to convey the idea of the vitality and vulnerability of things; if a person correctly perceives the limited time on this earth, then most likely he will not want to fight and kill.
· It is necessary to clearly define where is the original and where is the copy, where is the truth and where is the fake.
· Emotions and the internal state of a person are a new value, and not like currency. We need to move from collecting likes and views towards developing empathy, honour, respect, and responsibility.
· From the collective to the individual, because under the influence of the affect of the crowd and society, a person cannot ask himself what is personally important to him. And if he had asked, it would have been just happiness.
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