Marieke Self-Directed Research
My favorite English words right now:
1. Visceral
2. Cathartic
The most complete PORTRAIT possible
This research is about the notion of a visible identity. What are ways to make the most complete portrait possible? When is a portrait valid, genuine and authentic? How can you make the invisible parts of anatomy visible? Let's say with an MRI or X-Ray hospitals can make photos of the invisible. Or words, are words also valuable when you describe a person?
But people are also fluid and ever-changing so maybe still figurative images wouldn't be a wise choice. Unless they would be able to say something more then the first-hand impression.
Before I had questions about the meaning of reality but this has grown into more specific questions. The questions I have now are more clearly focused on humanity I guess. Maybe this reality is now more translated into concepts of authenticity and genuineness. So when is an image humanized or dehumanized?
To me this also has a lot to do with vulnerability and protection and the tension between them.
Important quotation from Steve's class: Maybe it's not about realities, but about different levels of abstraction.
Visual Research
As a result of the Toolbox class I made a personal challenge for myself: No programs for altering in experiments. This is to stop myself from always changing my imagery afterwards with digital programs. By doing this I hope to expand my visual language. I realized that with these programs I mainly tried to mimic infra-red, ultraviolet and (psuedo)solarisation images. So I decided to research new ways for me to get images like this.
Until now I have researched infra-red the most. I started this research by putting the Hoya IR72 filter over my Nikon D40 lens. A few of the results:
As you can see most of these pictures are not that clear and sharp.
There are some sharp ones but I didn't select them.
Because in a way the poetry loses when you see it clearly (I'm not saying this is always the case).
So I think I prefer it when the information you get from the image stays vague in a way.
Resources
Artists:
- Masahisa Fukase
- Jesse Kanda
- Chris Cunningham
- Francis Bacon
- Richard Mosse
- Bill Viola
- Daisuke Yokota
- * Matthew Cetta
Stuff on infra-red and solarisation:
- Solarisation
- Rollei IR 400
- Infrared film photography
- Introduction infrared photography
- History of infrared detectors
Resources:
Reading List:
- The Emergence of Cinematic Time - Mary Ann Doane - 2002
- Psychofarmaca - Solomon H Snyder
- Taking the mask off - Cortland Pfeffer, Irwin Ozborne
- Mothernism- Lise Haller Baggesen
- Objectivity- Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison
- Foundations of Social Theory, James Coleman