[-empyre-] Lady in Wight- talking pictures

[eliza fernbach]

Dear Neal,
The images on your website are even more eloquent than you!
many thanks.
-Eliza

Tell me what you forget, I will tell you who you are.
                                                                                              - Marc Augé


--- On Sun, 12/28/08, Neal Robinson <neal at neal-robinson.com> wrote:

> From: Neal Robinson <neal at neal-robinson.com>
> Subject: [-empyre-] Lady in Wight
> To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Date: Sunday, December 28, 2008, 11:21 PM
> As Kevin so eloquently stated in his previous post I also
> didn't exactly head to Colorado to unpack my pharmakon,
> but was thrilled to be invited to explore a topic previously
> unknown to me and to take part in Christine’s vision of a
> Pharmakon project.
> 
> My fascination with the perception of time and space drove
> me to create the Lady in Wight variants. These immense and
> perplexing subjects have been orbiting human thought for
> centuries and have been at the core of my work for some time
> now.
> 
> Instead of delving deeply into these enormous subjects, I
> was thinking we could take a side road and look at my visual
> and photographic strategy for these pieces. So where did the
> Lady in Wight variants begin? Ostensibly I could say it
> began with the books I have been reading over the past year
> and a half. These have included such works as The Fabric of
> the Cosmos by Brian Greene, A Briefer History Time by
> Stephen Hawking and the David Bodanis books E=mc2 and the
> Electric Universe.
> 
> Trying to wrap my head around the subjects that these
> authors introduce has proven to be quite a Sisyphean task. 
> However, as a starting point for me it has been an
> invaluable endeavor. As my organic process continues I begin
> to hunt and gather images. Currently I am using a dslr to
> capture slices of time, though the Wight variants were
> primarily made from digital video stills.
> 
> The next step in Wight’s road to reality began with
> bringing everything into a digital environment. Film footage
> was taken using Photoshop’s automated ability to grab
> frames at pre-specified intervals and thus bring into the
> work a randomness that is associated with quantum physics.
> Once captured, the frames were then connected and layered
> into a much larger image. Layering at that point became an
> essential part of the process. Using the programs layers
> tool I was able to code and collage meaning into the image
> as I introduced text and various other shapes.
> 
> Even though the Lady in Wight variants are finished and
> have been released out into the world to make there own way
> as independent objects they provided an excellent jumping
> off point into my current work. I am a huge proponent of
> looking at ones work in retrospect which then helps the
> author understand their own art and also aids in the
> conception of new pieces. If you would like to see where the
> variants have led me then please visit neal-robinson.com
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> Neal_______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre