User:Nicole Hametner/Trimester2

Nicole Hametner, Trimester 2, 2013 

Self Directed Research

Description

Research Statement

Media

Photo (scanns from b&w prints)
Video (evt only stills)

Essay

RWRM

Thematic Project - Encyclopedia of Media Objects

Black Box Personal entry
The Alphabet Visitors entry in collaboration with Nan Wang and Matthias Hurtl

Description

This research was initiated by the look of an old folded up viewcamera that reminded the shape of an alien box. The theme of the black box was the subsequent thought, brought with the fascination for the unknown within, where only input and output is known, but the transition between remains ambiguous. Besides a short overview of the technical image in media history, the main subject in this entry will be the analog digital conversion. The construction of the analog photographic image and the digital video image will be juxtaposed and serve as foundation to examine the idea of the so-called loss of materiality. This process of transformation will be looked at in a rather metaphorical way and expresses some philosophical and poetic aspects of its media specificity. The theme of a black box is very vast and its concept applied in different fields. In psychology the brain is considered as a black box, in photography it is the camera and in new technology it can be the computer. To begin with our brain, the two latter can be seen not only as interfaces, but also as extensions of the human body. In an article about his video work Eye/Machine the filmmaker Harun Farocki says: “Eye/Machine surveys a world of hyper alienation, not merely of man from world, but of world from man - a world of our making that has moved beyond our reach.” BlackBox