Abstract
This paper explores the ontology of photography as through its traditionally representational nature, it stands in opposition to that of performance art, which is often nonrepresentational. The paper explores ways in which the arts, through abstraction and the somatic may disrupt subject/object and signifier/signified binaries. Concepts such as aura and totality are related to both the photograph and performance to dissect the decompositional qualities of the arts. Here, absence and decontextualization are specifically highlighted as they are bearers of aura and a form of displacement that instills abstraction. All in all, the photograph is pushed past its existence as an image. Instead, the photograph is reconstructed to be considered an event. In this, the photo encompasses the entirety of an image’s creation and subsequent decomposition. The subject/object binary is distorted as all entities involved in the photographic event are sovereign. Furthermore, the photograph becomes more greatly absurd as it no longer signifies anything. Instead, the photograph exists as a continuation of itself. Here the abstracted image carries more aura in the absence of meaning, evades the anti-feeling hermeneutics of representation, and democratizes the image through the shared sovereignty of all entities involved.
Presenters
Hannah WilderStudent, Visual Studies, Bard at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Images Do Not Represent Us, They Create Us: The Image and its Transforming Power
KEYWORDS
Photography, Ontology, Phenomenology, Performance, Theory, Aura, Totality, Absurdity, Abstraction, Somatic
