Interpreting interruption

Fahy, Niamh

Abstract

The planning and precision involved in wet-plate collodion photography necessitates a certain amount of formality, through the methodical workflow followed, a sense of order is imposed (Barger, 2015). However, this order co-exists with the countervailing material agency of the collodion, organic and uninhibited, it possesses a liquid intelligence (Pasek,2019) that has the capacity to interrupt the formality of the process.
In this paper I argue that the purposeful use of imperfections on the collodion plate can be exploited as an interruptive force to abstract or erase part of the image with the intent of activating narratives beyond the material representation of the world. Interventions within the image can function as pivotal characteristics that enable creative practitioners to communicate imperceptible changes in landscape and respond to the corresponding complexities of those narratives.
The presence of interruption in the image demands attention of its audience, the intent of glitch within the formal and historic holds a weight of implication that extends beyond the boundary of the plate, tension emerges between the structured order of the formal and the fluidity of the informal that amplifies a yearning to grasp the narrative that has been obscured through interruption as Jacques Derrida suggests it enacts “an erasure that allows what it obliterates to be read” (Derrida, 1982 cited in Batchen, 2013) Glitch art has been much discussed as a response to emerging digital technologies. In this paper, glitch or interruption in the analogue will be discussed as a form of intervention indicative of a broader thematic concerns within the age of the Anthropocene.
Locating this discussion within my own creative practice as a multidisciplinary print artist and through examples from a collaborative project with artist Cecilia Mandrile, I will address the potential for expanding creative impact beyond the distinctive aesthetic, specific to the process. Engaging in both digital and analogue modes of creative practice a key concern within this paper is the relationship between wet-plate collodion photography and digital methods of making. Through addressing this relationship as interrelated in my own practice, I argue that both modes of practice can be negotiated to fortify and support emerging dialogues that inform a visual language appropriate to the age of the Anthropocene.
Digital and analogue methods used interchangeably or as dependent components of each other raise questions on the origin of the “interruption”. Does the glitch emerge as part of the lively agency inherent in the collodion? Or is it an aesthetic mishap from the digital image captured through the analogue. This warrants further inquiry into the dissemination of the collodion image, analogue plates are scanned or digitally re-photographed to be shared with publishers, on creative platforms and social media, the images will be predominately consumed through a screen and so are reconstructed to exist as semi-analogue images (Pasek, 2019), extending and metamorphosing the life of the analogue. ISBN:0-978-0-904495-22-5

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Don't Press Print: De/Rr Constructing the Collodion Process
• Start Date: Oct 1, 2020
• End Date: Jan 2, 2020
• Publication Date: May 31, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jan 25, 2022
• Keywords: Agency, Wet Plate Collodion, Anthropocene, Glitch Aesthetics, Intervention
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/8541740
• Publisher URL: https://rps.org/shop-items/don-t-press-print-de-re-constructing-the-collodion-process/