Recent exhibition of my MRes photography practice (thus far!) as part of an exhibition called Surface Exposure with three PhD candidates from the University of Brighton, on show at the University of Brighton Gallery, Grand Parade 16th-24th July 2013.
Thank you to HC Waddington and Judit Pusztaszeri for their help with installation and all the emotional support along the way; to Graham and Dad for making the trip down for the PV; and Mum , Jim and Lindsay for all of their support throughout the MRes.
Thresholds, Rachel K Gillies
Thresholds explores what is lost and what remains when communication and technology come together in and through the surface of the photographic image. Looking at ideas of erasure, meaning both the act of erasing and the mark left behind in the process, this work investigates tensions that occur through technologies that promise more than they deliver and proposes an aesthetic that emerges through losses in mediated communication.
Portraits taken through video communication software highlight the lo-res data stream and resulting glitches that are endemic to the medium. They question whether and why we accept these erasures as the price of our desire for an alternative type of communication. In other works, in a more conscious act of erasure, corrupted self-portraits remind us of the instability and fragility of the underlying architecture of the digital image and question the permanence of the medium.
Thresholds is the practice-based component of Gillies’ current MRes research project investigating the aesthetic of erasure in contemporary digital arts photography and exploring the impact of these practices upon the way we understand the photograph, both as a digital and an analogue image.
Tagged: communication, exhibition, Rachel K Gillies, Surface Exposure, Thresholds, university of brighton
