The Untitled Artwork Experiment A Collaboration Between Artist and Beholder
Artwork Awaiting A Title
The Story
Every artwork starts with an intention, but it really comes alive when someone else looks at it. For months this new piece has sat in my “possibilities” folder – a dark, mysterious field with a single golden sphere glowing at its centre. I knew there was something powerful there, but it still felt unfinished without a title that came from beyond my own point of view.
That's why I launched "The Untitled Artwork Experiment." The goal was simple yet profound: to step back and allow the Art Journal community—you—to title the work. I asked you to look, to feel, and to tell me the story, idea, or feeling that led you to your title suggestion. The response has been incredible, transforming a solo creation into a genuine public collaboration.
Below is a short summary of the findings, dissecting the 21 unique responses and the dominant themes.
After reviewing the short summary on themes, you'll find the individual submission responses below with a link for you to caste your vote on the favourite title.
The author of the winning title will receive a 50 x 50 signed limited edition with a Certificate of Authenticity in the chosen name of the artwork.
What you saw in the image
Twenty-one of you responded, and every single person offered a different title.
Some were anchored in mood and atmosphere. Others leaned into science and energy. And then there were the poets and storytellers. The Themes that emerged:
A play between darkness and light – shafts of brightness cutting through a deep, almost cosmic black.
The sensation of looking into water rather than at it: depth, reflection, “something beneath the surface.”
A tension between calm and unease – words like “calm,” “silence,” and “stillness” sitting beside “suspense,” “storm,” and “tension.”
An ongoing fascination with alchemy and transformation – elements combining, time passing, something changing state.
And, again and again, the sense of a watchful eye – that golden ellipse in the centre reading as a gaze looking back.
In other words, you confirmed something I’ve always believed: the artwork doesn’t really “exist” until it meets the beholder. Each response completed the image in a unique way.
Now it’s time to choose the title
The Untitled Experiment: Full Viewer Responses
See all 21 reponses.
Please choose one title only – one vote per person.
When the poll closes, the most-voted title will become the official name of the artwork, and I’ll share the result (and a little reflection on it) in a future Art Journal entry plus the winner’s name (if the winner permits it to be published).
Submission 1 Midnight Dreaming
2. Title Reason: It darkness is midnight dark, but the dreaming light, soft ochre and blues are calming, almost like you are half awake and half asleep, just in that intersection of conscious and unconscious
3. Evoked Idea: like i sad above, the intersection of conscious and unconscious, i feel a sense of calm, i feel like my breath slowed to a steady pace, and the air i breathe out it cool, like i feel my body sinking and slowly relaxing, i can feel all the muscles in my body relax
Submission 2 Electric Blue
2. Title Reason: A cathode ray in its dying days melting into oblivion. The last ray of sunshine before its inevitable demise.
3. Evoked Idea: A sad farewell to a bygone era that can only be felt with the experience of aging
Submission 3 Espresso chemistry
2. Title Reason: that beautiful crema coloured circle reminds me of a morning coffee freshly made by a barista artiste. Love it
3. Evoked Idea: rich, luxurious feeling supported by the dark mysterious background. The movement of the barista is captured along with the machine making that cup of gold
Submission 4 The Metallic Witness
2. Title Reason: I turned the image 180 degrees. The image showed me a metallic being. A being witnessing the silence. The silence of space. The scream of the void. Filled with a single planet. An expressionless being. It witnesses the scream of the void. It doesn’t care. It only witnesses. The cold hard metal. The steel of the witness.
3. Evoked Idea: Through the interplay of light, reflection, and form, Metallic Witness explores the tension between presence and absence. A reflective surface transforms into an anthropomorphic figure — a silent observer in space. Why is there an observer here? What is the bigger purpose? The silence. The scream. Cold. Hard. Dark. Devoid of light. The very thing that defines photography. The emptiness. The witness. The metal. The question. Organic forms yet, metal. The fluidity of metal. Metal is fluid at temperature. In this cold place, it is solid, yet fluid. A juxtaposition of cold and hard with something wet and fluid, yet not. It is devoid. The blackness of velvet. The silence within a scream. The futile scream without oxygen. Yet no oxygen is needed for this being. It is a witness. A being with a purpose that one can only consider the past, the future, the intention. The question. The work invites contemplation of perception, isolation, and the blurred boundary between the mechanical and the organic.
Submission 5 Dielectric Closeness
2. Title Reason: The term "Dielectric" is a scientific term referring to an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an electric field—meaning it stores electrical energy without conducting the current. In a physical sense, it is the medium separating two charged conductors (like the space between the plates of a capacitor). I chose this term because it perfectly captures the state of erotic tension: Tension Without Release: The "bodies" or charged elements in the photo are intensely close ("Closeness"), but the medium separating them (the tension, the anticipation, the protocol) prevents immediate contact. Maximum Potential: The forces of attraction are maximized and stored, creating a powerful, humming potential energy. The erotic charge is palpable, yet insulated and contained. Sci-Fi Feel: The word "Dielectric" grounds the concept in cold, clinical physics, providing the necessary futuristic, slightly sterile framework for the abstract image.
3. Evoked Idea: The primary emotion is Agonizing, Clinical Yearning. It is desire stripped of sloppy human emotion and rendered as pure, geometric force. There is a deep, controlled frustration—a recognition that the peak experience is not the contact itself, but the sustained, razor-thin distance just before it.
Submission 6 Insects vibes
2. Title Reason: Because I saw a cotchineal beetle there & it can be used for many things ,products ,& the surrounding force field electric blue .
3. Evoked Idea: The unknown magnetic field & forces insects experiencing.
Submission 7 Sailing on a Changed Mirror
2. Title Reason: I see Ralph's continued devotion to nautical reflection and feel that he might be a bit ambivalent about the new alteration, and I hope he embraces happily the changed mirror in this image.
3. Evoked Idea: Stepping forward into a new space, wondering ...
Submission 8 Canoodles
2. Title Reason: I can see canoe oars pulling spaghetti through the water
3. Evoked Idea: I feel I must focus on the light and stay away from the dark
Submission 9 Natural high or relaxed chaos
2. Title Reason: Because it looks like a misshapen bong
3. Evoked Idea: Relaxed chaos
Submission 10 Liquid Resonance
2. Title Reason: When I looked at the image, I felt an immediate sense of vibration — as though light itself was humming through the surface of the water. The reflections aren’t static; they bend and pulse, creating rhythmic waves of line and color that feel almost musical. The deep indigo tones give the image a meditative depth, while the golden and ivory highlights ripple like sound made visible. The title “Liquid Resonance” expresses that interplay — the idea that water holds memory, vibration, and energy. It’s not just reflecting what’s above, it’s responding — resonating — to it. The image feels like a visual echo of something unseen, a moment where light and movement find harmony in fluid form.
3. Evoked Idea: For me, “Liquid Resonance” evokes a feeling of quiet intensity — a moment suspended between calm and movement. There’s a sense of mystery beneath the surface, as if the water is translating unseen energies into shifting light and form. Emotionally, it feels meditative yet alive — the kind of stillness where you can almost hear the silence hum. The distorted reflections suggest the fluid nature of perception — how reality bends, reshapes, and reflects differently depending on where we stand. It also carries a sense of connection: between light and water, matter and vibration, the seen and the sensed. There’s beauty in its ambiguity — a rhythm that feels both natural and otherworldly, like the quiet pulse of life beneath the surface of things.
Submission 11 “Positively Negative”
2. Title Reason: Love how the negative space highlights the essence!
3. Evoked Idea: We immediately saw it being a perfect companion to our much loved Yellow Masked Mast!!
Submission 12 Alchemy or Alchronea - a blend of alchemy and time (chronos) -description would be "an elemental force of time and transformation."
2. Title Reason: I saw the alchemic process and felt the sensation of time immediately and loved it. I was taken to an ancient place where I was observing the pot or forge heated to alchemize and transform substances. The image has a very real sense of the process of alchemy- the heating and the cooling, the evaporation of vapours as the alchemic process takes place. It also has a very strong sense of time - the past, as well as the present moment as the alchemic process is conducted and evokes enticing wisps of ideas of future possibilities pushing the known boundaries forged from ancient wisdom.
3. Evoked Idea: To add to what I have already said, this piece represents to me a moment of stillness in time - a still capture - and yet simultaneously, the vertical and horizontal shapes and lines move energetically between the past and future. They represent the vapours emitted in the alchemic process as substances are brought to a new form through the heating and cooling processes and they evoke a strong electromagnetic connection between ancient past practices and the mysterious excitement of unknown future technologies and possibilities. All of that that was my instant reaction when I saw it, and then when you described your transformative process of changing the background of this piece to see what new possibilities transpired from that change, that seems like the very definition of alchemy to me. Thank you for sharing your beautiful work.
Submission 13 "I will arise and go now ..."
2. Title Reason: W B Yeats' "Lake Isle of Innisfree" is much on my mind recently; one of my favourite poems.
3. Evoked Idea: I see here a fragile spirit rising from the waters of the lake, moving tentatively into an unknown, but much longed for, future.
Submission 14 Crazy Serenity
2. Title Reason: There are elements of speed but also such calm
3. Evoked Idea: Serenity in this crazy and fast paced world
Submission 15 Smell the coffee
2. Title Reason: Reality’s ambiguity.
3. Evoked Idea: Settling into cozy comfort of living the unknown.
Submission 16 "Echoes Beneath"
2. Title Reason: I think this is the first black / dark and moody artwork I've seen from you - at least from what comes to mind! I felt a sense of depth and mystery with this one, like there’s a hidden story or echo beneath the calm surface, waiting to be heard.
3. Evoked Idea: The piece makes me feel calm but also a bit uncertain... like there’s something just beneath the surface I can’t quite see, yet the deep blue and black tones feel peaceful. It's giving vibes of those drifting thoughts and memories that come and go when you lay your head on the pillow at night.
Submission 17 Alquimia en proceso (Alchemy in Process)
2. Title Reason: Porque veo transformación y diferentes estados del agua
2. Title Reason: Because of transformation and different water conditions
3. Evoked Idea: Misterio por descubrir y emoción
3. Evoked Idea: Mystery to discover and emotion
Submission 18 "Suspenseful Imagination"
2. Title Reason: There is a great degree of suspense in this artwork. The image appears to be suspended, but it is ambiguous, which in itself creates a suspense, and allows, or indeed requires, the observer to reach a conclusion as to what the image is that they are imagining. No conclusion is wrong, but the viewer doesn't know if they are right, or indeed, if there is a "right" conclusion. It leaves them in suspense. A suspense increased by the naming of the work currently being suspended!
3. Evoked Idea: Delight, in the viewing and intrigue The black background emphasizes the illuminated colours and randomness of the pattern provided by the abstract trailings, drawing my eye into the work for the pleasure of repeated viewings. I feel that this is a work that will remain fresh and exciting, because of the ongoing multiple images and meanings contained within it.
Submission 19 Beyond the Blue
2. Title Reason: The dark contrast flips the narrative of what is normally expected from your art. The subtle sections of perfect blue in the background located in various areas hinting at the original author's work but also showing their 'alter ego'. It's marvellously different!
3. Evoked Idea: Moody, modern and a sense of dark deep relaxation highlighting the lighter side of dark colours with the perfect amount of blue and other colours in the picture. It reflects my style of preferred colours in my everyday life (black) for a various range of clothing, appliances - even my car colour is black, and my favourite colour is blue. Combining the two with a flare of gold and yellow really does grab my attention in the same way that your 'Clearing the inner blueness' grabbed my attention on display in Manly corso.
Submission 20 Suspenseful Imaginations
2. Title Reason: This is an amendment to the previously supplied idea, I have added the letter S to the word "imagination" in my previously suggested title, as an alternative form of that idea. It better reflects that with the multiple interpretations of the work, there will be many "imaginations" invoked
3. Evoked Idea: AS PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED IN EARLIER SUBMISSION ..........
Submission 21 Eye Of The Storm
2. Title Reason: The shape of the patterns rejecting the swirling water on two layers as lightening strikes the water.
3. Evoked Idea: Dark, ominous and strong.
Help Name the Artwork
You’ve seen all 21 responses – now I’d love you to help choose the final title. The winning title will be given to the artwork, and the person who suggested it will receive a free copy of the work as a thank-you for collaborating.
How to vote
Click the button above or below to open a short poll, read through the title options, and select your single favourite title.
One person, one vote – just follow the prompts in the poll.
