Replicas by Eleni Palogou

What triggered me to start this research is the multiplicity of reality. How something is represented, how it actually is and then how we all perceive it in our very own way. In that sense reality doesn’t exist, only versions of it. The lack of awareness of this multiplicity affects a lot our lives; what we believe, what we take as granted and how he behave.Through this practice based research I am experimenting on how to create moments of surprise and realization for the spectator. I work with copies and representations, replicas as I like to call them. The Replicas can be made of different materials, can be virtual or very physical. Until now I used scale models, mirrors and projections but the list is endless; so are the different ways to use the replicas or the impact that they will have. The way that the replicas are introduced to the spectator and their interaction is also very crucial in my work and another field to research. The movement and the body play a significant role to this. The special relationship that we have with our body, the way that we perceive it and how the movement can reset these relations and affect how we experience things.

<-- Back

Reality doesn’t exit as something fixed and stable. According to phenomenology, “phenomena are meaningless unless interpreted, and interpretations depend on prior knowledge and cognitive models of the world to categorize the phenomena.”
(Gregory,2009)

Does real or reality ever exist?
Before starting to write about replicas and how to create deceptive situations, I should question myself:
What is reality anyway, and does it exist as something objectively graspable?
The answer is no. According to phenomenology, there is not such a thing as there is no objectivity. Everyone perceives everything differently. Nobody can know how others perceive things, and every conclusion or definition that is drawn is nothing more than a commonly accepted or imposed construction. Much has been said and written about reality; it is a subject that concerned many philosophers, starting from Plato. But let me tell you my views on reality.

Reality is something that we construct in our minds to create a base that we consider stable, and we refer to, to build our thoughts. We are so focused on building these thoughts that we forget its fragility. We forget that this reality is nothing but our interpretations. It can be something completely personal and alien to others and something that can radically and suddenly change. Our realities are like boxes we put our heads inside, but after a while, we adapt, we get so used to them that we forget about them. Consequently, we shouldn’t talk about one reality but many realities, as many as interpretations of reality, or a multiple reality.

I remember when I started thinking of how multiple reality is. It was during the spring of 2020. I was in Greece stalked in my room, listening to the news and realizing that a fake representation of reality becomes a reality if you perceive it as such.

How something is represented, how it actually is, and then how we all perceive it in our very own way. In that sense, reality doesn’t exist but only versions of it. The lack of awareness of this multiplicity affects our lives a lot; what we believe, what we take for granted and how we behave.

Tip

Tip