_southern cross university, 2013
Concerns revolving around data loss and the loss &/or compression of quality for the human sensorium (ie smell, taste, touch, hearing, sight), were instigators in the development ‘senseless‘. Nostalgic memory and emotions are stimulated by the senses…and digital technology does little to stimulate the senses other than offering a simulation of what was. It offers nothing to the primary senses of touch and smell, and more often than not offers a steralised &/or compressed version of sight and sound.
Referencing the data books of the ‘f-book’ series, only the separated facial sensory organs of foundling_Ø_002 are portrayed. Layered over 6 printing runs, the images moved from being embedded with digital code, to the data being erased via the addition of a white digital ground. This process, along with the final incorporation of a subtle wood-grained texture, references the traditional notion of erasure or information (data) loss over time. But this form of data loss is actually the addition of nostalgic information pertaining to the life of the object as seen in the objects patina, and not a loss in quality or sensory triggers that is inherit in digital data loss or compression.
_process
please note…as the Golden digital ground or InkAid pre coats are not stable when layering prints, it is imperative to seal of each printed layer with a (good quality) picture varnish before reapplying your Golden digital grounds or InkAid pre coats. The white matte pre coat (Golden or InkAid) is stable but becomes semi-transparent when layered with another ground or water.
A companion series to the themes in ‘senseless’ and also ‘pi’, the foundlings in ‘forced’, comment upon my methodological process and provide another take on data compression &/or loss. Technically executed similar to ‘senseless’, in aiming to instill a patina of process and creation, coupled with the compression of information that occurs in the translation of the analog to the digital, only the structure of the digital pixel is available for this translation to occur…a forcing of information into this small non-existent medium, in where the foundlings now view the world only via this small square window, while all the other data/information {the patina of creating & process, their cropped facial features, their clothing and background} is presented on differing textural layers and remain lost &/or discarded around the vessel which is the digital pixel.
_process
please note…as the Golden digital ground or InkAid pre coats are not stable when layering prints, it is imperative to seal of each printed layer with a (good quality) picture varnish before reapplying your Golden digital grounds or InkAid pre coats. The white matte pre coat (Golden or InkAid) is stable but becomes semi-transparent when layered with another ground or water.
Mirroring and providing a literal translation of the disembodiment of the body and head (mind) of the ‘AM_N boxes’, the foundlings in ‘disembodiment’ have further explored the notion via the dramatic use of chiaroscuro &/or erasure of information to highlight the separation of either the mind or the body from each other. The encompassing use of black with subtle to strong variations in density and patina (matte to gloss…sorry hard to capture photographically) fills the darkened void of the removed entity (face, body or background), which is comprised of the digital code of that image for (possible) future re-embodiment (i.e. it is possible to enter the code and re-create the image). Focusing my use of the white matte digital ground on the separated face or body provides the emersion of the foundling (i.e. the flat matte finish sinks back into the page visually) as they confront the viewer in seeking to be re-membered.
Built up over 8 layers, the notion of re-storying the images via erasure and by addition (reprinting the same image over and over) resembles the process of memory itself, in where we do not remember our initial memory of something, but create a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory of a memory…all of which once again counters the static memory of the digital.
_process
please note…as the Golden digital ground or InkAid pre coats are not stable when layering prints, it is imperative to seal of each printed layer with a (good quality) picture varnish before reapplying your Golden digital grounds or InkAid pre coats. The white matte pre coat (Golden or InkAid) is stable but becomes semi-transparent when layered with another ground or water.
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
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).
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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 