Lecturer: Gilles Massot
Class hours: Wednesday, 10am-1pm
Location: B209
Synopsis:
This elective aims to look ‘beneath the surface’ of photography, both in its physical and narrative aspects, while exploring the representations of the ‘self’.At the heart of the photographic process is a translation of time-space that sees real life events turn into 2D images. But what are these images truly made of? How do they happen? How do they exist? In which form, on which support? One part of the project will consist in a study of the different physical states of the photographic images, how they are shared and used. This will lead to a range of formal experimentations in the way photographs can be displayed, an experience used for the final showcase that will close the elective program. The other part of the project will focus on a specific topic in photographic portraiture: the self-portrait and its contemporary digital form known as ‘selfie’. The invention of photography resulted in a radical transformation of the representation of the self, and the flexibility of the medium was put to great use in the field of self-portraiture to produce highly poetic or powerful images reflecting the artist’s introspection. By the turn of the 21st century the digital evolution of the medium, concomitant to the development of the social media platforms, resulted in a much more social and anecdotal form of self-representation. This evolution from individuation to individualism is arguably representative of a trend characterizing the infocom society. The contrast/tension between these two forms of self-representation will be the topic of exploration from a visual point of view. In the last phase, formal and narrative explorations will be brought together in the form of site-specific installations that will interact with the campus space.
Class hours: Wednesday, 10am-1pm
Location: B209
Synopsis:
This elective aims to look ‘beneath the surface’ of photography, both in its physical and narrative aspects, while exploring the representations of the ‘self’.At the heart of the photographic process is a translation of time-space that sees real life events turn into 2D images. But what are these images truly made of? How do they happen? How do they exist? In which form, on which support? One part of the project will consist in a study of the different physical states of the photographic images, how they are shared and used. This will lead to a range of formal experimentations in the way photographs can be displayed, an experience used for the final showcase that will close the elective program. The other part of the project will focus on a specific topic in photographic portraiture: the self-portrait and its contemporary digital form known as ‘selfie’. The invention of photography resulted in a radical transformation of the representation of the self, and the flexibility of the medium was put to great use in the field of self-portraiture to produce highly poetic or powerful images reflecting the artist’s introspection. By the turn of the 21st century the digital evolution of the medium, concomitant to the development of the social media platforms, resulted in a much more social and anecdotal form of self-representation. This evolution from individuation to individualism is arguably representative of a trend characterizing the infocom society. The contrast/tension between these two forms of self-representation will be the topic of exploration from a visual point of view. In the last phase, formal and narrative explorations will be brought together in the form of site-specific installations that will interact with the campus space.