Evaluation of Work : Camera Obscura
Over the last term, I have creating work around using the ancient artist tool, the Camera Obscura. It was a project that I had been thinking about a few months previously. My initial interest came from a box brownie camera that I bought in a junk shop for a pound. The simplicity fascinated me. It seemed to have a beauty in its working, compared to the modern camera that we come across on a day to day basis. I researched in to how functioned and came across the camera obscura, and how the two cameras worked essentially in the same way, apart from the box brownie using lens's, little had changed. I then went on to transform my bedroom in a camera obscura as an experiment, this I felt helped me understand how the camera worked, and spurred on much of work over the term. Memory has always been a focus of my work. It has been a constant theme throughout my last 3 years at university. I usually create work that is a direct consequence of my current situation emotionally. Last year I became interest in the memories contained within objects, and the story and importance that they hold for a person. This experience is completely unique, and its solely that of the owner of that object, and in theory the object can be nothing much more than perhaps a piece of junk, the memories can not be transferred, or experienced by another person in the same way. I came up with the idea of creating a box that was concealed and illuminated within. I would then attach a small camera obscura to it. I wanted to place an object within the illuminated box, so it would be visible on the viewing screen of the Camera Obscura. When making this device, the clarity I felt wasn't of a high enough standard, the light simply wasn't strong enough. I then made a hood to conceal the contraption, however again, it didn't work how I had planned. To allow more light into the concealed box, I then cut a hole in the end, and shown a light within, as well as the LED lights that where already inside. Again I was met with disappointed. This caused me to rethink my idea concept, and create something that was presentable for my assessment. I noticed after the experiments that, although the image of the object inside wasn't very clear, the shadow the object however worked very well. So this is where I decided to then create shadow puppets, and use them as a representation of my chosen objects, and have a semi installation piece. The shadows still remained fairly obscure, with the nature of the camera obscura inverting the image .After making the first prototype camera obscura, I started to think about how it reflected in my own life. The concealed nature of the boxes I was using to contain the objects, reminded me of the mystery of the womb. This seemed immediately relevant to my life being pregnant myself. I found it interesting that the word 'camera' in latin means 'dark', and 'obscura' translates as 'room', which I felt very much correlated with being contained within the womb. This led me down the idea of pre-thought, and the experience that we have while in the womb, something that is loss to us when we are born and when we grow. I went on to think about what I could remember, and my first experiences, my first memories. I wasn't sure what objects that I was going to be using, this is where I began to try and remember the first objects I can remember being given. These memories are now concealed within me, locked for as long as I live, my mind a metaphor for the box, and the light shining in, the I use language to share my experiences with others, but like the image seen on the viewing screen of the camera obscura, our experiences and memories can never be fully coherent to others, they are something that we own, something we hold within us. Perhaps we can give a shadowed image of our memories, but never fully can we show the reality, we imagine beyond and embellish things, again this detracts from anyone fully experiencing these memories the way that you have personally. I found this ran comfortably with Plato's writings, and that of 'The allegory of the cave'. Plato uses his writing to describe human nature, we all perhaps understand and create experience through objects, but it would be a mistake to restrain ourselves to established thoughts, because of our tentative attitude to change. Like the prisoners in the cave, we can be restrained from seeing a different reality, this can be because of a situation we can not escape from, or we perhaps we chose to ignore reality or a different vision because of our own stubbornness. We can ultimately be restrained by memories, and maybe this cages us from encountering new experience in our lives. I went on to use shadow puppets in my work, and place them within the concealed boxes, this was inspired by the shadowed images that are in Plato's cave theory, and the light used to illuminated the shadow puppets is very similar to the fire placed behind the prisoners in Plato's writings. I found the camera obscura used to seeing the puppets, converted the image upside and inverted it, this is the same as how images enter the eye, it is our brain that converts the images back around, so in some sense how can we ever truly see truth in our being, if even our minds conceal it from us. I wanted to fit my work again, in with my present situation, so I decided to follow the matriarchal line of my family and obtain objects from myself, my mother, and my grandmother. I did this because lately I have been constantly thinking about the life contained within me, and where he or she will be placed, and what their first memories will be, I know they are living and moving and experiencing things for the first time, and eventually the thoughts that they gather in the womb will be lost to a new first memories, perhaps years after these first that have been created. Interestingly all the objects that where presented to me, followed a very feminine theme, so from all of our first memories, we can be immediately restrained by a predetermined expectation when being female. It is almost impossible to escape already fixed expectations, this is perhaps why people have similar ideas, or make similar mistakes in life. Yet we can strive to individual, or in the same strain of thought, strive for unity.