Abstract
This paper analyzes the potential of reflective design frameworks to inform discussion into image ontology. To do so, a Found Photo workshop is analyzed for its constitutive frameworks amid the changing ways that photographs exist in relation to decisions implicating visual communication and interaction design. These have impacted the ability of photographs to accrue meaning in contemporary culture in Hong Kong, where the workshop takes place. Traditionally, photographs create memories in their physical form. Yet they have now been unleashed to expand the potential for communicating in more diverse ways. To do so, the ontology of found photographs are used to apply a burgeoning discussion about experimental photography to practices of noticing. Still in its infancy, this theory needs reflective design approaches to devise how to situate discourse within the practice of both photo-taking, and photo-viewing in everyday life. The workshop to be analyzed involves an overlap of contemporary visual theory with a design approach specific to the needs of those who now take photos daily. This calls for methods which reveal the context of looking through the deixis of photographic image use and discourse. The inclusion of found photos necessitates an investigation into the moment of finding. As a result, the tertiary relations between contextualized visual representation along with the embodied act of looking can be brought to light. Discussion then implicates reflection on the perception of design artifacts as much as it does the limitations and potential of reflective design itself.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Reflective Design, Image Ontology, Found Photography, Mediation, Embodiment
