Polyphantom-Art
Olga Stein
Polyphantom-Art:
Artistic Method and Concept
Polyphantom-Art is an experimental psychophysical movement in visual arts based on the phenomenon of successive contrast.
Physiological Basis
The method is rooted in the visual system's ability to generate a "phantom" — an after-image in a complementary color that appears on the retina after fixing one's gaze on a colored object. While the brain typically filters out these phantoms in daily perception, Polyphantom-Art focuses on them as a primary element of inquiry.
Methodology
The artistic practice of Polyphantom-Art consists of the visualization of the phantom: extracting a psychophysical reaction from the realm of subjective perception and fixing it onto a material plane. In this process, the phantom is transformed into an external artistic language and utilized as an independent medium.
Key Principles:
- Polyphantomism: The assertion that the environment is not only polychromatic but contains a hidden layer of phantom images initiated by every colored object.
- Transformation of Experience: Translating the dynamic properties of the phantom (dependent on light intensity, color, and exposure time) into artistic form.
- Synthesis of Perception: An experimental fusion of neurophysiological memory and active visual processing.
Object + Light + Color + Phantom = Polyphantom-Art
Context and Verification:
The theoretical foundation draws upon the study of simultaneous and successive contrasts (Johannes Itten, The Art of Color). The most direct way to experience a phantom is to look at a lit light bulb and then close your eyes. The resulting after-image is the primary "phantom" whose properties are researched and captured within this movement.
experimental, psychophysical movement in contemporary art.
Founded and developed by
Founded and developed by
Polyphantom-Art entymology
Poly - (from Greek πολύς / polýs) - "many", "numerous". Phantom - (from Greek φάντασμα / phántasma) - "phantom", "vision", from - φαίνειν / phaínein - "to make visible".
Poly - (from Greek πολύς / polýs) - "many", "numerous". Phantom - (from Greek φάντασμα / phántasma) - "phantom", "vision", from - φαίνειν / phaínein - "to make visible".
Definition of Polyphantom-Art
Polyphantom-Art is an experimental psycho-physical movement in visual art,
in which the main artistic material is the afterimage (phantom) — an inner illusory phenomenon
that arises in human perception of a natural phenomenon or a material object, that is, of an image itself.
Expanding the possibilities of color perception by relying solely on visual phantoms
in which the main artistic material is the afterimage (phantom) — an inner illusory phenomenon
that arises in human perception of a natural phenomenon or a material object, that is, of an image itself.
Expanding the possibilities of color perception by relying solely on visual phantoms
is like showing the viewer both sides of the Moon at the same time.
Scientific, Historical and Theoretical Context
Afterimage and its Perception
The afterimage phenomenon (the Phantom) has long been studied by physicians, physiologists, and color theorists. It has been described in detail in the context of successive and simultaneous contrast by many renowned artists. However, to this day, no one has used this phenomenon as the primary material for the creation of works of art.
Afterimage and Perception
Complimentary
Hermann von Helmholtz — a German physicist, physician, physiologist, and psychologist — investigated and explained the effect of negative color aftereffects (afterimages). This phenomenon occurs when, after prolonged fixation on a colored object and a subsequent shift of gaze to a neutral field (for example, a white surface), a “phantom” image of the object appears, but in its complementary color.
For instance, after looking at a red object, a bluish-green phantom emerges; after blue, a yellow one appears.
The color of an afterimage is always conditionally complementary to the color of the original stimulus.
Johannes Itten, in his book The Art of Color, described in detail all seven color contrasts, including simultaneous and successive contrast. The concept of simultaneous contrast refers to the phenomenon whereby, when perceiving a certain color, the eye immediately demands the appearance of its complementary color, and if it is not present, it simultaneously—meaning at the same moment—produces it on its own.
Vibration
Robert Darwin (1786) identified and described two types of afterimages (Phantoms):
negative — appearing against a dark background,
positive — appearing against a light background.
Phantoms (afterimages) seem to vibrate, alternating between light and dark, warm and cool phases, gradually weakening and eventually disappearing.
Illusoriness
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his treatise Theory of Colors, described “phantom spectra” or “illusory color forms” arising within the human visual system. He argued that the perception of color is not a reflection of light, but an internal activity of vision that generates its own visual images.
Transience
The bright flash of a phantom is always followed by its rapid, rhythmic fading and disappearance.
This too is explained by the physiology of the human visual apparatus.
Energy
Kazimir Malevich asserted that color, when freed from representational content, possesses its own independent energy — an inner force not dependent on form. Therefore, a charged, pulsating chromatic Phantom also possesses these qualities.
Dynamics
By its very nature, the Phantom is mobile and associatively dynamic.
Wassily Kandinsky perceived color as movement and mood — a living, dynamic entity capable of conveying inner states and spiritual tension.
Phantoms usually arise in the pauses between saccadic eye movements.
Saccadic movements are natural, instantaneous, constant, jerky movements of the eyes that occur when viewing an object, reading, watching a film, or even during sleep.
For this reason, when observing an afterimage, it appears as though it is “in motion.”
The afterimage phenomenon (the Phantom) has long been studied by physicians, physiologists, and color theorists. It has been described in detail in the context of successive and simultaneous contrast by many renowned artists. However, to this day, no one has used this phenomenon as the primary material for the creation of works of art.
Afterimage and Perception
Complimentary
Hermann von Helmholtz — a German physicist, physician, physiologist, and psychologist — investigated and explained the effect of negative color aftereffects (afterimages). This phenomenon occurs when, after prolonged fixation on a colored object and a subsequent shift of gaze to a neutral field (for example, a white surface), a “phantom” image of the object appears, but in its complementary color.
For instance, after looking at a red object, a bluish-green phantom emerges; after blue, a yellow one appears.
The color of an afterimage is always conditionally complementary to the color of the original stimulus.
Johannes Itten, in his book The Art of Color, described in detail all seven color contrasts, including simultaneous and successive contrast. The concept of simultaneous contrast refers to the phenomenon whereby, when perceiving a certain color, the eye immediately demands the appearance of its complementary color, and if it is not present, it simultaneously—meaning at the same moment—produces it on its own.
Vibration
Robert Darwin (1786) identified and described two types of afterimages (Phantoms):
negative — appearing against a dark background,
positive — appearing against a light background.
Phantoms (afterimages) seem to vibrate, alternating between light and dark, warm and cool phases, gradually weakening and eventually disappearing.
Illusoriness
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in his treatise Theory of Colors, described “phantom spectra” or “illusory color forms” arising within the human visual system. He argued that the perception of color is not a reflection of light, but an internal activity of vision that generates its own visual images.
Transience
The bright flash of a phantom is always followed by its rapid, rhythmic fading and disappearance.
This too is explained by the physiology of the human visual apparatus.
Energy
Kazimir Malevich asserted that color, when freed from representational content, possesses its own independent energy — an inner force not dependent on form. Therefore, a charged, pulsating chromatic Phantom also possesses these qualities.
Dynamics
By its very nature, the Phantom is mobile and associatively dynamic.
Wassily Kandinsky perceived color as movement and mood — a living, dynamic entity capable of conveying inner states and spiritual tension.
Phantoms usually arise in the pauses between saccadic eye movements.
Saccadic movements are natural, instantaneous, constant, jerky movements of the eyes that occur when viewing an object, reading, watching a film, or even during sleep.
For this reason, when observing an afterimage, it appears as though it is “in motion.”
From scientific experiments to a pictorial method
Polyphantom-Art is my individual metaphysics of vision.
In my works, I experiment by combining the colors of visible objects with their polyphantomic reflections. The Phantom possesses a strong metaphorical dimension, and I believe that phantoms can also exist in relation to intense emotional events preserved in our memory.
P.S.
Everyone knows that the Moon has two sides, yet we always see only one of them.
The same is true of color: we register only what we see here and now.
Polyphantom-Art expands the possibilities of color perception.
Metaphorically speaking, it allows the viewer to see both sides of the Moon at oncу.
In my works, I experiment by combining the colors of visible objects with their polyphantomic reflections. The Phantom possesses a strong metaphorical dimension, and I believe that phantoms can also exist in relation to intense emotional events preserved in our memory.
P.S.
Everyone knows that the Moon has two sides, yet we always see only one of them.
The same is true of color: we register only what we see here and now.
Polyphantom-Art expands the possibilities of color perception.
Metaphorically speaking, it allows the viewer to see both sides of the Moon at oncу.
© Olga Stein. Polyphantom-Art 2025. All rights reserved.
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