Erica Seccombe

I am an interdisciplinary visual artist who investigates the aesthetic possibilities of the computational extension of vision with time-resolved micro-X-ray Computed Tomography. Using this frontier science, I have explored the potential for capturing and visualising volumetric datasets of naturally occurring events that have never been seen before in 3D time-lapse, such as germinating seeds and a pupating fly. Projecting the resulting moving images through immersive stereoscopic installations, I have created works of art where an audience can experience the virtual kinetic development of microscopic processes from a very different perspective. I have used stereoscopic technology in my work to enhance the affect of wonder by situating the individual within the installation space as an active participant. Drawing on the histories of scientific visualisation and the increasing capacity of photographic lenses to reveal a world beyond reach of ordinary human sight, my work refers to the fixed physical proximity of the human observer to the object. Stereoscopy has evolved as a valuable tool for modern scientists examining volumetric datasets as the comparative depths in the data reveal a vast amount of information. Yet the illusion, created by stereoscopic vision that collapses the space between the viewer and the object, engages a range of sensory properties and creates an affect described by Johathon Crary as a form of ‘ocular possession’. [Techniques of the Observer, 1992] This sensory state is also a point of interest in the context of the contemporary phenomenological approach to installation art, as way to locate the body in a continuous reflective sensation of experience. Discussing these key elements in my work I will address the conference themes of ‘Performance and Visual Media’, ‘Scientific and Social History of Early Immersive Media’, and ‘Media Arts (Visual/Sound) and Immersion’. Using visual examples, I will examine how the underlying meaning for my works of art, ‘Metamorphosis’ and ‘Out of Season’ have been resolved using digital stereoscopic projection technologies.

Dr Erica Seccombe is a visual artist and an academic at the ANU School of Art & Design where she is Head of Foundation Studies, Convener of Graduate Studies Coursework for Visual Arts, Design and Art History and Curatorship, and lecturers for The Centre for Art History and Art Theory. Her practice spans from traditional and photographic print media and drawing to experimental digital platforms using frontier scientific visualisation software. Since 2006 she has been an artist and resident researcher at the ANU Department of Applied Mathematics and Vizlab, NCI. Erica’s PhD GROW: experiencing Nature in the Fifth Dimension is a practice-led research project investigating time-resolved (4D) micro-X-ray Computed Tomography through immersive stereoscopic digital projection installations and 3D printing. Notably, Erica’s work ‘Metamorphosis’ 2016, won the 2018 Waterhouse Natural Science Art prize, in 2017 Erica was awarded the Capital Arts Patrons Fellowship, and in 2015 her work, ‘Virtual Life’ 2014 won the Inaugural Paramor Prize: Art + Innovation Casula Powerhouse Art Centre, Liverpool, NSW. She is currently a lead consultant for the Campbelltown art Centre community art project for the Campbelltown Hospital Rebuild.

Sandra Camacho

What might one remember if one were to hold an iPod in one’s hand whilst the stranger on the screen voiced their memories directly into one’s ear? How might the medium in which their testimonies are presented affect the experience of these memories? With a practice that encompasses a variety of media — including photography, film, video, photobooks, slides and even View-Masters — Portuguese-artist Daniel Blaufuks (b.1963) turned to iPods as an immersive media for his 2008 project ‘Now Remember’. The work takes its title from Georges Perec’s ‘Je me souviens’ (1978) — which in turn was borrowed from Joe Brainard’s ‘I remember’ (1975) —, a collection of 480 autobiographical statements each beginning with “I remember…”. In ‘Now Remember’, Blaufuks recorded the testimonies of five individuals (Heather, Irene, Nadia, Scott and Thomas) asked to follow the “I remember…” constraint for 15 minutes. The memories shared ranged from the mundane, “I remember yesterday morning”, to the harrowing, “I remember a single drop of blood on the couch on the day that my friend Ray shot himself in the head.”

Rather than projecting the recordings sequentially in a gallery space, where viewers would experience the work collectively, or choose to show each video in an individual screen with headphones, where spectators would continue to have little agency over their viewing, Blaufuks elected to turn to iPods. In ‘Now Remember’, the iPod operates as a capsule of memories as much as a device on which to share them; containing the testimonies as five separate files, in turning the device on and off, the viewer could open or close a window into someone else’s memories. One could rewind, change tracks, or skip ahead, but there was an additional trait to experiencing the project through an iPod: it is small enough to fit in one’s hand and the sound is deployed directly into one’s ear. This cradling of the devise, with its minute screen, returns the making public of the memories of these five individuals into something experienced privately, as if they were meant solely for one’s ears; it is here that one might perceive to unique qualities the iPod offers as an immersive media and how it might impact the response to the telling of memories. What might one remember when one hears these voices?

Christian Klant

Even though early photography evolved at an impressive rate, the actual exposure times were very slow. Starting with hours, dropping down to minutes and thanks to the increasing sensitivity of the wet-plate collodion process, exposure times finally decreased to fractions of seconds.

An increasing number of photographers (many of them former painters) started experimenting with chemical and technical elements to freeze motion with the use of photography. The rise of an instantaneous photographic movement was an exciting adventure for both photographers and viewers of this new medium. The reactions to the first street scenes or breaking waves must have been deeply impressive. It was the skilful work and the visionary mind of Eadweard Muybridge who took instantaneous photography to the next level by capturing a horse in full gallop.

Christian Klant is demonstrating technical strategies for instantaneous photographers using daguerreotypes and wet plate collodion as processes of choice. Major milestones are interpreted by showing various examples from the 1840s to the 1870s.