A TOOL FOR SLOWING INTERPRETATION
Perceptual Entry / Perceptual Exit
Research Tool v0.1
Chen Ye
2026-01-15
https://chenye.me/research-tool
A working research tool developed alongside artistic practice.
Why this tool exists
The problem this tool addresses
In contemporary art contexts, experience is often translated too quickly—
into concepts, narratives, values, or declared functions.
Before a work is fully encountered, it is frequently framed, explained, or classified through language.
This acceleration of interpretation results in a loss of perceptual weight:
duration is shortened, openness collapses, and bodily attention is replaced by recognition and judgment.
Within current discourse, such premature stabilization of experience often appears through therapeutic, care-based, or experiential rhetoric.
Terms such as healing, care, well-being, perception, or embodiment are frequently mobilized across different registers without clear distinctions between:
– artistic practice
– therapeutic intention
– rhetorical or symbolic positioning
This tool does not intervene in debates concerning the value or legitimacy of therapeutic practices.
Rather, it addresses a more fundamental and operational question:
how artistic experience becomes stabilized through explanation—before it is fully perceived.
What this tool offers
This document does not propose an artwork, a portfolio, or a finished theory.
It does not make therapeutic, psychological, or wellness claims.
Instead, it functions as a decision and judgment tool—
designed to slow down premature interpretation and to clarify when bodily and perceptual attention is operative, and when it has withdrawn.
One-line research question
How does bodily attention enter and exit the processes of making and viewing, and how can material resistance delay interpretation and completion?
Core terms
This tool operates through a single pair of terms.
They are not metaphors or psychological states, but operational positions within artistic practice and reception.
Perceptual Entry
Definition
Perceptual Entry refers to moments when bodily attention is actively engaged in making or viewing, prior to stable naming, explanation, or resolution.
Perceptual Entry is not:
Not emotional immersion
It does not require intensity, empathy, or affective identification.
Not interpretation
It does not depend on knowing what the work “means”.
Not intention
It does not presuppose a clear artistic aim or conceptual control.
Perceptual Exit
Definition
Perceptual Exit refers to moments when bodily attention withdraws and is replaced by rapid categorization, explanation, or a sense of completion.
Perceptual Exit is not:
Not failure
Exit is a structural condition, not an error to be corrected.
Not distraction
It is not caused by lack of focus or external interruption.
Not thinking as such
Exit occurs when thinking overrides perceptual negotiation.
Self-test & decision moves
This section translates the terms into usable criteria.
They are not prescriptions, but tools for decision-making during making and viewing.
The following criteria are not diagnostic, but heuristic.
Self-test: Has Perceptual Exit occurred?
Perceptual Exit is likely present when two or more of the following conditions coincide:
A. The work can be named, categorized, or summarized without further negotiation.
B. Decisions proceed smoothly, predictably, and without resistance.
C. A sense of completion, coherence, or “this already works” dominates the process.
Exit is not something to avoid entirely—but something to recognize.
Decision moves: What to do when Exit dominates
The following actions function as practical decision tools, not stylistic effects.
Introduce material resistance
Work with materials or processes that slow action and prevent foresight of results.
Delay naming
Postpone titles, explanations, or thematic framing, or leave them unresolved.
Interrupt completion
Stop working at moments of visual coherence or satisfaction rather than refining.
Withdraw the guiding gesture
Reduce intervention when the work begins to direct interpretation too clearly.
Return without correction
Re-enter the work without fixing or clarifying unresolved states.
These moves apply to both making and viewing, understood as shared perceptual structures.
Evidence from practice (optional)
(To be populated with selected works as evidence of use.)
Work 1 — Contact
2025, mixed media on wood panel
(marble powder, rabbit skin glue, chalk powder)
This section presents a set of operational conceptual tools developed alongside artistic practice, intended to slow down premature interpretation of experience.
It is neither an artwork nor a finished theoretical outcome, but a working decision-support tool for making and viewing.
The current version is v0.1 and remains subject to ongoing revision through practice.
Where Exit occurred
Perceptual Exit was identified at the point when the overall relief structure had been established and attention shifted toward surface finishing and visual refinement.
What decision was made
Instead of completing the surface through smoothing or decorative resolution, I stopped the process and deliberately introduced materials that increased resistance, unpredictability, and tactile variation.
What changed after intervention
Working with marble powders of different grain sizes and Bologna chalk altered the pace of making. Grinding and sanding became uneven and physically demanding, reintroducing bodily negotiation through pressure, friction, and fatigue.
What this demonstrates
This work demonstrates how material resistance can interrupt a shift toward visual optimization and re-open perceptual engagement when Exit is recognized.
Work 2 — Interface
2025, mixed media on canvas
(putty powder, cotton fabric, rabbit skin glue)
Where Exit occurred
Exit emerged at the moment when the underlying relief suggested a clear next step: adding color blocks according to a preparatory sketch to articulate emotional or expressive content.
What decision was made
I chose to abandon the sketch and suspend color application, proceeding instead with covering the surface using a thin layer of cotton fabric without further pictorial intervention.
What changed after intervention
The fabric partially concealed the relief beneath, creating a tension between softness and rigidity, exposure and concealment. The work shifted from expressive description toward a sustained perceptual ambiguity.
What this demonstrates
This work demonstrates how withdrawing an intended expressive gesture can prevent premature interpretation and allow bodily perception to remain operative without explanatory reinforcement.
Tool status
This is a working research tool developed in parallel with artistic practice.
It does not propose a finished theory, but a set of operational terms and decision criteria tested through making and viewing, and subject to revision through further practice-based evidence.
How to cite
Short citation
Chen Ye, Perceptual Entry / Perceptual Exit — Research Tool v0.1, 2026.
https://chenye.me/research-tool
Full citation
Chen Ye. Perceptual Entry / Perceptual Exit: A Research Tool for Slowing Interpretation in Artistic Practice.
Version 0.1, January 2026.
Available at: https://chenye.me/research-tool
Versions
v0.1 — 2026-01-15 — Initial release