In their 1989 article, “The Dissociation Theory of Pierre Janet,” Van der Hart and Rutger Host note the analogous relationship between “field of consciousness” and “visual field,” likening the conscious and unconscious registration of centrally detailed and peripherally vague visual stimuli to the psychological phenomenon of a united and ununited concept of the self—a central concept in the development of Janet’s theory of dissociation. During her residency, Buechler will experiment with moving- and still image-making processes to explore the semantic relationship between the aforementioned phrases. Her experiments will involve time-exposure, continuous-shooting photographs, and slow-motion videos wherein she and mundane institutional interiors are the objects of study. The result will be a collection of gallery-ready short films and photographs and/or a digital photobook with a microSD inclusion. Utilizing a strictly image-based methodology, she hopes to visually explicate the physio- and psychological phenomena of dissociation thereby making an abstract experience visible.

H.R. Buechler is an interdisciplinary artist, founder of OXBLOOD Publishing, and former Print Production Fellow for the Journal of Artists’ Books (JAB). She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Funds for this residency came from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the Max and Marian Farash Foundation; and Joy of Giving Something.