Artistic Research: Delving into the Mind of the Inner Child by Survey Questionnaire

As a child, everything around you is a swirl of novel experiences. The way in which we understand these experiences is by detecting them through our radar-net of senses. This artwork is being created to enhance our sensations in an expansion of life force and a resurgence of childhood wonder.

“To begin to understand the gorgeous fever that is consciousness, we must try to understand the senses – how they evolved, how they can be extended, what their limits are, to which ones we have attached taboos, and what they can teach us about the ravishing world we have the privilege to inhabit.” – Diane Ackerman

If you would like to skip the article and go straight to the questionnaire, please click here.

The artist encourages letting your children answer the questionnaire as well.

“The senses don’t just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity; they tear reality apart into vibrant pieces and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern.” - Diane Ackerman

While pondering a way to honor the inner child, the interactivity of art, and the textures of life experienced through the senses, I came to an enquiry:

Are there universal proclivities of childhood which link us all? Will a sensational pattern reveal itself regardless of culture?

The beauty of art is its boundless nature. You can never get it wrong. Art is a tool used for exploration. It allows us to dive deeper into the things which we are uncovering.

There are many aspects to the inner child. Some say there are seven subcategories of the child archetype. Each individual contains all of these aspects within their inner child but in different ways and to different degrees. In this artwork I will be focusing on the beauty of childhood, the fish-eye lens. The feelings and sensations gained from a visitation aims to be one of enlightenment, healing, and activation for the Innocent, Divine, Magical, Eternal, Nature Child within us all.

An Aphrodisiae for the Sense Receptors

Sight

“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one.” – John Ruskin

What sights charmed you as a child? Which colors remind you the most of childhood? What colors are your inner child most drawn to? What views did you love staring at when you were young? Were you drawn to nature, to clouds, to grass, to dirt, to the sky? Did you love the look that certain types of animals had? Were you fascinated by fur, by scales, feathers, or the tails of lizards? Did you like tadpoles, the art of swimming, the view underwater? Were you fascinated by hopping, grasshoppers or frogs? Were your eyes drawn to flying butterflies, dragonflies, or birds passing overhead? Did you like things that were bright or more subdued? Did you like kaleidoscopes, things you could put your eyes up to that flashed and shifted? Were you fascinated by the big or the small? Were you attracted to the art of magnification, of enhancing the tiny world into a round and enlarged artifact? Did you like to play with proportions? Maybe it was inside of your imagination. What did you like to imagine inside of your mind during playtime? Did you see anything? Can you remember? Did you like the view of landscapes, mountains or oceans or waterfalls? It’s okay if it was only in pictures. I want to know your favorites of them all.

Scent

“If there are words for all the pastels in a hue – the lavenders, mauves, fuchsias, plums, and lilacs - who will name the tones and tints of smells? It may be that smells move us so profoundly, in part, because we cannot utter their names. In a world sayable and lush, where marvels offer themselves up readily for verbal dissection, smells are often right on the tip of our tongues – but no closer – and it gives them a kind of magical distance, a mystery, a power without a name, a sacredness.” – Diane Ackerman

Which smells were sacred to you as a child? Which scents were your solace? Smells swirl around us all the time. They enter our bodies, and they emanate from us. Yet when we try to describe a particular scent, words tend to fail us like the fabrications that they are. Words hone thoughts and bring the world into focus. They paint watercolors of perception. Yet the physiological links between our sense of smell and the language center in our brains is a human weakness. Try your best to describe the scents that comfort your inner child and don’t be upset if the descriptions cannot get past the tip of your tongue.

The coming of the rain is my personal favorite scent from childhood. I loved being outside and feeling the change in the atmosphere. It felt like the whole world was pregnant with anticipation and expectation of mother nature’s glory.

Florals or fruity scents. Blueberry bushes. Succulent fruits. Watermelon. Sizzling bacon. Ocean waves. Dog paws. Damp fur. Book pages. Lilac. Lavender. Oranges. Pot roast. Copper. Swamps. Sunscreen. Pies. Fresh cut grass. Musk. New asphalt. Canal water. Eucalyptus groves. Roses. Chlorine. Peaches. Pears. Mint. Laundry detergent. Paints and play doh. The smell of glue. Coconuts and vanilla. The smell of cake. Pizza. Burning wood. Melting chocolate.

“Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines, hidden under the weedy mass of many years and experiences. Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.” – Diane Ackerman

In the research for my artwork, I am interested in the smells that transport you to beauty, comfort, and joy. I imagine that this will be one of the toughest senses to find a universal human pattern within. As your children are presently living inside the time of perception in which I am creating my artwork around, I am especially interested in their opinions and feedback to this question.

Sound

Outer space is silent, but on Earth almost everything can make a sound. What we call sound is really an onrushing, cresting, and withdrawing wave of air molecules that begin with the movement of any object, like a pair of wings, that ripple out in every direction. The act of hearing bridges the ancient barrier between air and water, where we are and where we come from. It takes the sound waves, translates them into fluid waves inside of the ear canal, and then into electrical impulses once the sound reaches the brain.

When it comes to finding a universal pattern beyond cultures, I have high hopes for sound. Did we all favor easy cadences and rhyming as children? Nursery rhymes that use playful language have been shown to stimulate the brain of children in such a way as to cater to the building of vocabulary. Maybe young minds are naturally drawn to learning and play.

Could there be something about repetition that our inner child loves? As I hear the “bum bum bum’s” in Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream, I become wrapped up in joy. The repetition, changing tones, and humanly orchestrated aspect of it all produces a lush, hypnotic quality.

While discussing my research with a friend they told me that their favorite sonic memory from childhood was a church that had been situated on the top of a mountain and would play bells in various tones up and down and then up again like Beethoven’s Fur Elise.

Another sound I loved as a child was laughter, running around and surrounding me. The melody of high-pitched giggles made such a delectable tune.

Touch

“Touch has a memory.” – John Keats

Squishy. Soft, fluffy blankets. Tree bark. Sand slipping through your fingers. Siberian husky fur, right behind the ears. Oasis foam. Bubble wrap. Silk. Velvet. Pure cashmere. Jello. Pearls. Water. The pages of a book. Smooth skin. Skeleton keys. Bare feet in mud. Warm blankets straight out of the dryer. Moth and butterfly wings. Feathers. Hot bathwater. Piano keys. Rabbit fur. Slipe n slides. Bounce houses. Down filled pillows. Waterbeds. The underside of a sea star. The smoothness on the inside of shells. Earlobes. Moss. Flower petals. Fingerpaints. Soft nectarines and peaches.

Concepts/Feelings

What concepts did you love as a child? Were you always searching for something? Maybe as a child, you didn’t have a name for it, but now you do. How should this experience feel for you?

Enchantment/Enchanted, Magic/Magical, Ephemeral, Scrumptious, Luminous, Vibrant, Grandiose, Inspirational, Delectable, Elegant, Luminescent, Earthy, Monumental, Explosive, Heartfelt.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read this article exploring feelings and the senses. I’m excited for your contribution towards this research. If you would like to support my writing and see my immersive art concepts come to fruition, please consider leaving a tip below.

Fill out the Inner Child Survey here.

P.S. If you know anyone at Disney, tell them I want to collaborate.