Portfolio

ORCID id: 0000-0002-3720-9751

Research Title:

Reassessing the 'found': experimental photography within mediated looking

Research Keywords:

Image ontology, experimental photography, noticing practices, design meditation, reflexive design, non-representational theory, embodiment, found

Research Abstract:

The idea of experimental photography has not been adequately theorized. Yet, our technological milieu seems primed for it. Over the past decade, photographs and practices of image-making have been interwoven into the ways we interface with our physical devices, and the attention paid to the sensory world around us. Yet there remains a bias for the indexical truth of photographs. Therefore, this research addresses a need to acknowledge the mediated context of a photo's creation, ingestion, and representation through the habits generated in daily acts of looking. It re-frames experimental photography practice as a vehicle for probing questions of mediation and promoting acts of embodiment when encountering images. In the process, found photographs are used to implicate unsettled acts of noticing in daily life. Ultimately, experimental photography serves as a means to generate discourse on how designers can better attend to the visual encounters they seek to create. 

Research Methodology:

This study uses Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to elucidate themes and keywords relevant to an enactment of Experimental Photography. In doing so, A Practice as Research (PaR) approach is used to identify specific cases and opportunities for targeted interviews. Together, this situates the research at the confluence of ideographic, hermeneutic, and phenomenological discourses as they inevitably emerge.

Research Outcomes:

Deliver actionable methods for inducing a reflexivity on mediation of the visual. Develop discursive links between image ontology, design ethics, and a semiotics of mediation. Re-position found photography theory within changes in image ontology.

Publication:

Attention as Community Currency, The Collaborative City Exhibition within Lille 2020 World Design Capital

Specialization/Interests:

Image ontology, found photography, the at-home experience, sensory images, poker.

Qualifications:

BA, Goshen College MA / Lund University / MA, Linkoping University

Supervisors:

Chief: Jae Oh / Co-: Laurent Gutierrez

Date of Completion: 12/2021

Study: PhD

Study Mode: Full Time