_perth institute of contemporary art, 2014
_southern cross university, 2013
Seeking to evoke the inscription of the digital medium by hand creating pixelated face sections of the selected foundlings, I discovered that you can access the code of an image by opening the image into ‘TextEdit’ (Apple’s text editing program). The quantity of data generated for each image (An average A4 image @ 300ppi generates approx. 500pg pdf file as a jpeg, a tiff approx. 15,000pg) coupled with the pixelated face of the unidentified foundlings, indirectly alludes to the social concern with data collection (Eg. “FaceBook inadvertently exposed the private information of 6 million users when Facebook’s previously unknown shadow profiles accidentally merged with user accounts in data history record requests” zdnet, 23-6-13).
Comprising in total 10 individual foundlings with 36 books per foundling, the intensive process of hand binding the books became a process of metaphor in binding the past to the present. By the code of the image becoming ‘in-the-visible’, which in theory could be inputted into a computer and encoded to produce the whole image, the books, presented in handmade wooden data files, develop the notion of being a future hand crafted digital archive. Thus it paradoxically raises the question, what will the future archive look like (personal or national) if their isn’t an object &/or will we be able to read or understand it (eg digital storage devices…I personally own floppy discs that I cannot retrieve the data from).
The metaphoric extension of the binding thread could either allude to the notions that hair continues to grow after we die; the interconnected network of the digital environment; or McNeil’s cobwebbed studio. During installation (please refer below or to ‘traces’ & ‘hatched 2014’ installations) sets of books will be available for viewers to reconstruct as images by trial and error, which encompasses notion of play and discovery (ie akin to childhoodism), or via the x-y axis coding system on the back of each book. Viewing the work in this way, the resulting installation aims to play upon the notion of them being, yes an archive of the future, but an interactive, hands on accessible archive…
_naming protocol
example…
_process
_installation
Formatting and constructing the final three image panels to reference the form of the symbol pi_Π, refers to the foundational use of it in creating computer-based algorithms, especially for the continuing development of ‘identification’ software (eg face recognition) where an infinite number of variables is needed (“Facebook is developing deep learning software to understand what its users say and do online, a spokesman confirmed for Singularity Hub…Notable deep learning projects have already allowed computers to recognize in photos and videos the faces of humans and cats and to identify the emotions behind written content even when they’re not stated explicitly. Face.com claimed its software could identify which photographed smiles were genuine and which were fake.” Scott 2013)
Thus, by formatting the final image of ‘foundlings_Ø_115’, so that their face, particularly their eyes have been lost within the structure of the pi_ Π symbol, it not only references the fact that the foundlings are unidentified, but also alludes to the loss of personal privacy as a result of the ‘identification’ software and data collection being developed and stored in the online environment.
_process
Printing onto wood veneer was aimed not only to provide a tactile and warm return to the object that evokes the craftsmanship of the past, but to also use the substrate’s inherit symbolism of time and growth (indexed by a trees growth rings), to allude to the continual evolution of creative digital process and the embracement of the enduring aesthetic effects of time. Making the final prints into a light-box is to enhance this quality (wood grain) and evoke the inner and intuitive world. Differing finishing results where trialled (i.e. sealing the wood with varnish or shellac, staining, etc then applying the InkAid clear matte pre coat)…with a shellac layer being finally utilised. To print onto the veneer, utilise a carrier sheet to aid in registration…format your file accordingly.
The disembodied foundlings are separated by the comparison between the glass plate negative sizes that McNeil used (foundling bodies) against the medium format sensor sizes of a digital camera (foundling heads). This highlights the compression of data that occurs in the translation process, and also provides a physical representation of the concerns revolving around the disembodying nature of working with the digital medium. Each box is presented with a ‘positive’ image on the outside (comprised of three prints on polycarbonate), whilst the ‘negative’ or code is on the inside of the box (comprised of three prints on polycarbonate). By tearing pieces off some of the box backs, it is aimed to reflect the search for the structure of an image, the apparatus poetics.
The black boxes reference the traditional camera that McNeil used, or even the cardboard boxes that where used to store the negatives after they where diverted from being discarded from the tip. The black boxes also resonate specifically with Vilém Flusser’s black box apparatus analysis (Flusser, 1983, Towards A Philosophy of Photography, pp12-13)…They could also thus be seen to reference the ‘black box’ of the digital printer/computer.
For there installation (please refer below or to the ‘traces’ installation), it is aimed to stack the body boxes so that they form pillar like structures, representing that the past is what supports the present. As ‘pillars’, they will also equate in height to the physical size of a viewer and even tower above them, thus emphasising the physicality of an object. The corresponding head boxes will mirror the pillared structure of the body boxes, where the viewer will thus either tower over them or (hopefully) kneel down to view them. In this way it may appear as though they are worshipping the ‘digital’ head boxes, which would thus represent the general unquestioning embracement and use of current digital technology.
_naming protocol
The ‘head’ boxes are labeled with the same ‘code’ reference name as the corresponding ‘body’ box, for example…
Referencing the story of Angus McNeil’s mysterious filing (coding) system…the ‘AM_N’ can represent ‘Angus McNeil_Negatives’, but also evokes the word ‘Amen’. The numbers represent a random number below 250, 000 (approx. size of his original archive), but also reference a random date within the years McNeil worked as a photographer 1897-1945 (ie day-month-year eg AM-N 241245). When ‘all’ the numbers added together it makes 9 (2+4+1+2+4+5 = 18; 1+8 = 9), which is also the number of boxes for each of the differing glass plate or digital sensor sizes. 9 was chosen for the fact that it continuously folds back to create itself again no matter what it is multiplied by (eg 9×28 = 252; 2+5+2 = 9)…thus (very subtly) this is seen to evoke the enduring nature and mysterious quality of the negatives.
_process
_installation
In an attempt create a truly digitally corroded image, I found that simply by inputting my own words/thoughts about the fondling into the code of the image it produced corrupted coloured lines & other various digitally glitches results (Splitting, moving, and flipping differing parts of the image). Seeing it as a possible poetic act/process of combining a fictitious memory or personal response to the foundling into the computers memory, that in-turn evokes and expands upon the notion of personal spectralisation,
Presenting the image (3 sheets of polycarbonate) in a light-box, with just a single source of illumination from the top evokes the notion of an idea &/or hope (reinforced by the glance of the foundling). I feel the work also offers a counter take on the paradigm shift to accept the computer screen as surface and the resulting amputation of the object. Further practice-based research is planned for this process, thus the work marks for me the (hopeful) future of my use of the digital and digital printmaking, where there is a seamless and transparent re-embodiment of the mind and the body in the creation and reinstatement of the virtual image as an object that still retains the depth, layers and process of creation.
_process
The ‘present past’ series of prints on corroded aluminium embodies the notion of the medium remembering the act of its material process with the aim being to {re}create its ‘aura’ (re Walter Benjamin, 1935, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction). By including images of mothers/grandmothers with children (the past and the present together), I see it as a visual symbol of my research and methodology…the past (aesthetic) technologies nurturing, supporting and guiding the present (infant) technology. Referencing traditional printmaking etching techniques by corroding (etching) the aluminium with sea salt and copper sulphate, the aluminium substrate also remembers the act of its material process via the gestural act of tearing and bending the sheets of aluminium…all of which aims to evoke the gesture of searching, discovery and creation.
The use of aluminium also references the somewhat mythological notion that aluminum causes or contributes to memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease…thus implying the organic nature of human memory with it’s erasure and additions, all of which is counter the never forgetting static digital memory. It also plays upon the concept/symbolism of aluminum being a ‘contemporary’ medium…one that the modern world has relied upon (eg the computer industry…my macbook pro). Thus the corrosion and use of the aluminum is seen to run counter to the preconceived notion of the perfection of the digital image by evoking and embracing the corrosion of the digital substrate.
_alternate versions & printing tip
The doubled, flipped and merged image is seen to represent the merging of the digital and analog, in where the upside down image references the image as seen through a camera obscura (the past), while the digital (present) is the correct way up. By cropping and merging the face only to leave the eyes (foundlings_Ø_002 and foundlings_Ø_019) it is also seen to envisage a horizon line where the muted foundling representing the infancy of the use the digital, is just peaking over a mirrored (glass) surface or horizon. In foundlings_Ø_186 where evocative fragments of ‘punctum’ like clothing remain (re Roland Barthes, 1981, Camera Lucida), the foundling remains strong and engaged within the past where she is confronting the viewer, as they also confront themselves in there own reflection…
The use of the mirrored stainless steel is used to create the illusion of depth (which is subtly metaphorically akin to the simulated depth of the digital ‘virtual’ environment), but is primarily used as a means of highlighting the ‘spectalisation’ in looking and mediating with the past, in where we are actually looking for something within ourselves (i.e. you cannot avid seeing your own reflection in the work – thus they are very hard to photograph…note reflection in foundlings_Ø_186 and process images).
_process
Having the printed image on both the clear polycarbonate and the mirrored stainless steel, the reflection of the polycarbonate image in the actual mirrored surface achieves volume, depth and a 3-dimensional quality. On the ‘past’ (bottom) side of the image, this is seen as reference to the quality, character and tonal depth of the referenced glass plate negatives. However, with the removal of the ‘present’ (top) half of the print from the mirrored stainless steel with water, thus only leaving the print on the polycarbonate, the reflection in the mirrored stainless steel just reminds us that the depth that can be achieved in the present digital environment is simulated…merely a fictions illusion.
kurtis adamson 