These looped animations were created as a part of my senior year thesis, in an attempt to create ‘perfect’ loops, in which a viewer cannot distinguish where the motion begins or ends. The way the human mind conceptualizes time is through spatial metaphor. For example, time is referred to as ‘linear’ or having the geometry of a line. If one is viewing an event that seems to have no discernible beginning or end, the spatial metaphor of a circle is applied as opposed to a line. I argue that because of this, perfectly looped animation projects the image of a circle into the subconscious of the viewer, where it cannot be seen, but can be experienced as a feeling. This results in the experience of mesmerization. I believe this mesmerization is due to the temporal image of the circle evoking the archetype of the mandala, which creates a sensation of psychic wholeness, related to an inner `god-image’, narrowing the focus of the viewer into the present moment.
