Download files
Abstract
Using photography as the primary domain for the
investigation and incorporating architecture as a visual and
speculative reference-point, this research project interrogates
the affective imprint and anxiety of the image and its temporal
implications through the creation and representation
of architectural models and dioramas that convey a residue
of trauma. Sites of visual investigation include: aerial photography’s
links to selected historical events such as the Allied
bombing campaign of German cities during World War II; the
accidental imaging of Zyklon-B gas vents by the US Air Force
at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in August, 1945
(these images will be discussed within the context of analogue
imaging thresholds and their political links to contemporary
imaging resolutions) and the destruction of the Twin Towers
in New York in September 2001. The above events have been
specifically chosen as they help to unpack and demonstrate
the interplay between trauma, photography and temporal perception.
Through the production of models, dioramas, digital
images and video installation, the practice work visualises a
series of speculative psychological trauma-scapes linked to
these events, which demonstrate a diagnosis of media image
saturation that Paul Virilio argued has its own level of violence.
On a personal level my visual practice is a re-staging and response
to the trauma associated with this violence and operates
as a form of decelerative therapy, a counterpoint to the
pervasive nature of modern day image culture.