BOOK BURNING
Book Burning as Political Art
Biblioclasm, Censorship, and Visual Protest
Book burning is the deliberate destruction of books or written material by fire, historically used as a form of censorship, ideological suppression, and cultural control.
This work presents the burning of a 1960s copy of Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre inside a wood stove as both symbolic gesture and visual intervention.
The Dante Project and Disinformation
Art, Perception, and Political Reality
The Dante Project, a subset of Triptych Dialogue, explores disinformation, perception, and reality through visual art, philosophy, and experimental media.
Guided by the ideas of Plato and the artistic practice of David Deighton, the project investigates how truth is constructed, distorted, and experienced within contemporary culture.
Questioning Reality Through Light Sequencing
Projected imagery spills across walls and corners, creating shifting visual environments that disrupt passive viewing and invite critical reflection.
Plato’s Cave and the Fire of Knowledge
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Reimagined
The work begins within the framework of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave:
“A fire burning higher up.”
This phrase becomes both metaphor and material reality. A fire burns, and that fire is fed by a book.
Illusion, Truth, and Transformation.
The burning of Huis Clos deepens the tension between destruction and enlightenment, asking viewers to confront the unstable relationship between knowledge, ideology, and perception.
Disinformation and Contemporary Culture
Fake News and Eroded Trust
In today’s political environment, Plato’s cave increasingly resembles contemporary digital life, where misinformation, “fake news,” and manipulated narratives blur the boundaries between truth and fabrication.
Art as Critical Engagement
Rather than offering fixed answers, the work encourages viewers to slow down, observe carefully, and question what they see and believe.
Experimental Video and Sensory Distortion
Color, Filters, and Emotional Perception
The original footage preserved natural color, while later versions introduced subtle visual filters that reshape emotional and perceptual experience.
Visual Art as Epistemological Inquiry
The project uses abstraction, light, distortion, and symbolic imagery to explore how perception itself can be manipulated or transformed.
Related Projects and Films:
Views from the Cave
Explore the larger experimental media project examining digital perception, political polarization, and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
100 Views from the Cave
View abstract art films combining projection, distortion, philosophy, and digital imagery to question contemporary reality.
Questions
Discover experimental films exploring uncertainty, fragmented systems of belief, and the instability of meaning within digital culture.
Lying MAGA
An experimental media project exploring political memes, online echo chambers, disinformation, and the emotional mechanics of belief formation within digital culture.
Daily Abstracts
A series of experimental abstract videos and images exploring perception, movement, digital distortion, and contemporary visual experience through daily artistic practice.