_southern cross university, 2013
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 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 