Daniel o’toole
Noisey eyes
15.08.25 ~ 07.09.25
Noisy Eyes / Excited Optics presents a new body of textural colour field paintings that investigate the perceptual distortions associated with Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS)—a neurological condition that causes continuous visual static, comparable to film grain or analogue television interference. This series evolves from an ongoing photographic project titled Cosmic Soup, in which 35mm film is deliberately degraded through chemical interventions using household substances. These interventions disrupt the image surface in ways that parallel the persistent visual interference experienced in VSS, where the field of vision is constantly overlaid with a field of flickering lights. The process reflects O'Toole's interest in how sensory distortions can be both externalised and aestheticised through material experimentation.
The transition from photography to painting is not merely a shift in medium but part of a broader investigation into the overlaps between sound, image, and touch. Central to this interdisciplinary approach is The Particle Plate, an experimental sound interface developed during a residency at Outer Magnolia in Northern New South Wales. The device captures the impact of dropped particles—such as mung beans and chickpeas—on metal plates and converts
these into audio signals and MIDI data, effectively transforming random physical gestures into structured sonic outputs. The performative use of this instrument draws from traditions in sound art and its intersections with kinetic and conceptual practices, recalling works by artists such as Max Neuhaus and Rolf Julius.
The same particles used in the audio experiments are redeployed in the painting process, establishing a feedback loop between sensory modalities and media. This integrated approach resonates with the legacy of synaesthetic art—from Kandinsky’s theories of spiritual vibration to the multi-sensory experiments of 1960s expanded cinema—while remaining grounded in the personal, lived experience of perceptual disorder.
O'Toole’s earlier Refraction Painting series employed frosted acrylic surfaces to create actual refraction events, physically bending and scattering light across the painted surface. In contrast, Noisy Eyes / Excited Optics marks a return to raw surface painting. These works distil the flicker and pulse of visual noise into static yet densely layered chromatic fields. Rather than reproducing perception literally, they evoke the cognitive pressure and sensory overload of VSS through painterly means—resulting in immersive surfaces that are both chaotic and compositionally controlled.
