three+six+two
being a photographer, I see through a lens, the camera lens.
being a photographer, I see through a lens, the contact lens.
being a photographer, I see through a lens, the lens of my eye.
When one of the three lenses through which I actually looked through was taken away, my work began to explore not what I was seeing, but how I was seeing.
After months of tests, endless new contact lenses, it was determined my eyes would no longer accept them. This loss of technology of vision was deeply lamented. I recalled vividly the first day I put contact lenses into each eye. It was a summer day during which for hours I wonder around the fresh cut lawn marveling at the clarity of each blade of grass. My view to the world had changed.
Three+six+two is a self-portrait. The glass lens jars contains one of my former lens, like a biological specimen to be preserved in time. The printed image is in fact my height, five feet six inches to reference the self. This portrait expressed the disembodied view. How I see had changed again. In concurrence with this self-portrait, my contact lenses were placed onto various cameras to explore more fully the concept of my identity as being completely linked to how I see and the resultant images as an expression of this identity.
Another intriguing submission, this one from Kris Henning.
Within the design and engineering fields, 3D scanners are used as a tool to aid in the reverse engineering of a product. Especially fluid objects that are generally difficult to parametrically define. For example the shell of a car is sculpted in clay at full scale, 3d scanned, and then the surfaces can be reconstructed with splines. Generally this is an efficiency matter. 3D scanners - if used often, save immense amounts of time, and radically reduce errors in the transition from physical to virtual back to physical.
Some years ago I 3D scanned my face, fixed up some of the holes and re-grided the surface. The interesting thing about 3D scanning as a contemporary method of self portraiture is that despite using a technology that is supposed to increase accuracy and has been typically used as a method of reverse engineering - the expression of the form/face is ultimately defined by the perception of ourselves - in an abstract sense of course.
I have very limited control over how the technology captures the information, although I do have the opportunity to later play with this abstraction so that I communicate the most recognisable features of me. There are other interesting thoughts about this technology - such as the notion of age / time, surface manipulation, simplification, color/shadow, and ‘the mesh.’
I do have the ability to manipulate my portrait…. but I choose not to. If I were to, then I would advocate changes that embrace the abstract. I think this has less to do with the idea of changing how I view myself and more to do with my desire to change how others view me. As with photographs, a 3d scan only captures a moment in time, just in greater depth, and therefore is subject to greater scrutiny.
It would be interesting to open up ones face to manipulation. Although, I feel that generally people are not inclined to devote the effort in ‘beautifully’ manipulating someone else’s face when then could theoretically apply the same idea to their own 3D face. Therefore, I presume many of the modifications would be more akin to graffiti- bold swift changes that embrace the first idea that pops into the mind. A form caricature that exaggerates the essence of a face.
Another New Submission - Thank you Jennifer!
A film by writer and performance artist jennifer jazz about technology and absence
jennifer jazz is a New York based writer and artist. She’s performed mixed media versions of her texts at The Fez Under Time Café, The Kitchen, Dixon Place and The Public Theater. Her story Maya appears in the anthology Black Silk: A Collection of African American Erotica. The link below is of Je m’ennui, a short film about technology, the ways it removes us from our own lives and the rhetoric that enables it. The film was made in a friend’s living room and is mostly improvised.
A new submission!
A collection of images, sounds and videos from www.organizedscenery.tumblr.com
“the images are steady and immediate. they are taken, manipulated, found and searched for. they accumulate over time and within time. the songs are playlists communicating another level of interest and personal taste. like a still music video. the reader scrolls and streams. a rolling scene - me - through constructed visual expression.
I began this tumblr blog a year ago as a means to collect and document images, songs and video that related to my interests, musings, and general aesthetic sensibilities. many of the earlier posts i had taken with my own camera in another time and place. not knowing i would one day curate them for public consumption. now many of my images are sourced online, through facebook or shared with me directly from friends and colleagues. it is a moving outline of who i am. it is a colorful handshake, continually renewing newness and shaping self.”
This blog is part of research towards a Masters of Design degree. The goal is to solicit self-portraits produced by other designers, artists, and craftspeople, exploring how emerging technologies affect how they see their sense of self.
As demonstrated in the four historic self-portraits below, technology critically impacts not only how we create, but how we see ourselves as creators.
Please join the discussion and contribute your thoughts about how our notions of our selves will change as our methods of making change.
Ilse Bing, Self-Portrait in Mirrors, 1932
In this self-portrait, Bing uses two important technologies of the self-portrait; the mirror and the camera. Bing places herself clearly as the maker of the picture, and captures additional angles of herself that would not traditionally be captured. Bing’s self-portrait not only asserts her presence in a field dominated by men, but hints at notions of fractured identities which would become a major point of discussion several decades later.
El Lissitzky, Self-Portrait (The Constructor), 1924
In this photomontage, the Russian artist, designer, and architect, El Lissitzky assembles the components of his profession in a composition demonstrating the power of creativity and creation. The location of the hand, eye and mind, as the source of the construction gives a clear reading of not only how El Lissitzky wanted to be seen, but also how he saw himself in relation to the process of construction.
Robert Cornelius, Self-Portrait, 1839
This self-portrait in the form of dagguereotype, is noted for being one of the first photographic images of a person to be taken. In the image the artist appears to be captured in a fleeting moment, an attribute which we still associate with photography today. The verisimilitude of the photographic image still greatly influences how we value information today. Despite the prevalence of photoshopped images, society still heavily equates seeing with truth.
Johannes Gump, Self-Portrait, 1646
It seems fairly obvious that the technology of any particular age greatly influences the way people have lived their lives. Perhaps less obvious is how it shapes our own perceptions of ourselves, in fact becoming the tools by which we construct our own sense of self. The history of self-portraiture is an informative way of studying this affect of technology through time.
The self-portrait is intimately tied with the technological advancements in mirror production, which produced higher quality mirrors, allowed for more extensive production, and reduced prices (although, they were still quite expensive.)
In this self-portrait by Johannes Gump we can see not only the physical set-up that allowed him to paint himself, but we also see him in the act of reaffirming himself as an artist in a physical form. The self-portrait not only reflects the actual skill of the artist, but the aspirational values he held.
