Something Like ≈

Some-

thing Like ≈ .

Kieran Butler BFA Honours Paper 2014 UNSW | Art and Design University of New South Wales

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.

Kieran Butler 16 October 2014

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Thank you to Gary Carsly, Ian Howard and Andrew Frost for their support this year. A very special thank you to Debra Phillips and Tanya Peterson for their unforgettable hard work, guidance, support and teaching over the past two years.Thank you to my editors Katherine Rooke and Kelsey McMorrow. And lastly to those of you too many to name thank you for your faith in me, love and support. I would not be where I am today without your interest, honesty and friendship.

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Contents Prologue: Reflecting on a magenta thing

- 1

Introduction: What could this thing possibly be?

- 3

i. [re] vision We are the rubble, something like a post-condition

- 6

A thing from pre-history to something post-everything

- 8

Concrete magenta

- 10

Concrete photography

- 15

The assisted camera: Photoshop and the darkroom

- 16

How close can you get to magenta?

- 21

Theoretically there is no such thing as a colour photograph

- 25

Mystical magenta

- 28

Looking for magenta. Or looking for magenta?

- 29

A series of attempts at intromission by emission

- 30

Lucas Blalock’s drawing machine

- 33

What is it to destroy a photography thing?

- 36

Magenta matter, propositions for things

- 40

Speculating on things and [ re ] form

- 43

ii. [re] imagine

5

Conclusion:

6

≈

- 46

Image List

- 48

Reference List

- 50

VII

Prologue: Reflecting on a magenta thing

What is this thing, this magenta thing, and this photography thing? I remember this thing is tricky; it is elusive, ambiguous, something neither here nor there, yet it is something magic. I remember I was only able to produce this magenta thing on a screen, It seemed un-reproducible in any other form. What other form could it take, if any at all? I later discovered this magenta thing is called ‘web magenta’ and that its form is intrinsically linked to light and the structure of a digital plane, but is it fixed to this plane? Could it exist outside digital parameters? Drawing connections between the thing I saw on a screen, the difference when made into something physical, light and digital technology.

I concluded this magenta thing also appears to be a photography thing. This thing is simultaneously ambivalent and absolute. It is always shifting. Its materiality is so very concrete yet equally abstract at the same time. What is this thing?

A thing -

An idea, “a material object, an article, an item; a being or entity consisting of matter, or occupying space. (Often used as a vague word for an object which it is difficult to denominate more exactly)” (The Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2014).

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fig.1: Kieran Butler, magenta swatch for Something Like [

], 2014. #ff00ff from Adobe Red Green and Blue (RGB) colour sys-

tem. This is the magenta thing, the starting point. This is the magical thing that appears to be intrinsically linked to light and photography.

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Introduction: What could bly be ?

be ?

this thing possi(Wiessing, 2000).

By asking what photography could be my research and studio practice takes a conceptual approach, in addition to a Goethean approach2, looking at intuition, self reflection, imagination and logical argumentation. Rather than solely being a description of the empirical facts and histories of photography, this study is an exploration and re-discovWhat is this thing, this photography thing and this magenta thing?

ery of colour and abstraction within photographic practice. This study aims to inspire different possibilities for thinking about and looking at photography. It must be remem-

The timeless question of what photography is has been reassessed repeatedly both

bered however that the questions what photography is and what photography could be

before and after the proliferation of software based image making in the 1980’s. Now,

are inextricably linked; the latter, in some cases, cannot exist without the former.

in the aftermath of the digital revolution1, the current state of photography would seem fragmented, lost, confused or ambiguous, not having a singular form, designation or

States of flux, non-linearity, dualism, dynamism, focuses on process and experimenta-

mode of output and is constantly shifting. The question ‘what is photography?’ denotes

tion, and referencing and reflecting on the history of photography and its expanded

an evaluation of the history of photography, empirical facts and how these two things

fields are all characteristic of this ambiguous aspect of contemporary photographic

correspond to reality (Wiessing, 2000). To re-examine what photography currently is we

practice. Each of these characteristics leads into notions of abstraction and representa-

must re-ask another question much less explored.

tion, questioning the value of photography as an image or an object, as a ‘thing’. I have chosen to use the word ‘thing’ when talking about photography and magenta because

So,

of this prevailing sense of ambiguity. It is difficult to determine more exactly whether this thing is an idea, an image, and an object or if it can even be called a photograph. The

I ask,

interplay between abstraction, process, what came before and what could be the thing is the primary focus of this research.

what

This PDF is structured as a short assemblage of ideas that aims to establish a farreaching space for my research and studio practice to shift across and position itself

could

within. The two interrelated chapters are grounded in key critical photographic theory illustrated by a parallel case study on what the colour magenta is and could be3. Materi-

photography possibly 1. For further reading on the Digital Revolution and its effects on photography see Peres M.R, The Concise Focal Encyclopaedia of Photography From the First Photo on Paper to the Digital Revolution (2007) and Roberts. P, The genius of Colour Photography from the Autochrome to the Digital Age (2010).

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2. A Goethean approach refers to a phenomenological approach to science and knowledge developed by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. Goethe’s approach favored experience, observation and intuition as tools of scientific value (reference). Although primarily a literary writer Goethe’s writings on science, optics and colour have had a profound influence on this research. See Goethe, The Experiment as Mediator Between Subject and Object (2010) in In Context issue 24 for more on Goethe’s approach to science. See also Goethe, Theory of Colours (1840) for more on his research into optics and colour.

3. In colourist terms this brief case study forms the seams of a colour story that develops and outlines the relationship between the colour magenta and the spirit of photography. A colour story

ally colour is a thing that has the possibility to be physical or ethereal, an image or an object, an abstraction or a representation, scientific or creative, something that is neither here nor there. The colour magenta is explored because of its ambiguity, constant state of flux, and extra spectral nature. These ideas are linked to the practices of Cory Arcangel, Walead Beshty, Lucas Blalock, Jessica Eaton and to my own practice as a way to connect with, and discover new possibilities of what photography and colour could be, and to define the boundaries of my studio practice.

Chapter one, [re] vision, will look to revise the idea of preceding things, things that came before and how the idea of potential within these things may influence what photography and colour are and could be. This chapter will consider a dialogue of post conditions and the concretion and abstraction of magenta and photography things.

Secondly chapter two, [re] imagine, will consider the possibility of photography as a loose process of drawing, meditation, or proposition attempting to draw something out.

This offers the photograph and its related processes as a way of reaching a state of enlightenment, a pathway to abstraction. This section also considers the factors that may create possible future things.

This research is by no means an attempt to explain an entire theory, history or system of photography and colour. Rather, I hope by exploring the potential in each thing my research adds more questions to, and opens more possibilities for, thinking about photography, colour and materiality and the relationship between each thing.

can take on both a literary form and a visual from. It is a methodology used in the field of colour forecasting to illustrate, delineate and organise ideas, materials and questions. Like a Goethean approach colour-forecasting looks at intuition and experience in addition to historical data and imagination as tools of the field (Diane and Cassidy, 2005).

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i. [re ]

5

vis i

on

We are the

something

tion.

rubble,

like a

post-condi-

After a collision “images are bruised and damaged, just as everything else within history. History [things that came before], as [Walter] Benjamin told us, is a pile of rubble. Only we are not staring at it any longer from the point of view of Benjamin’s shell - shocked angel. We are not the angel. We are the rubble. We are this pile of scrap.” (Hito Steyerl, A thing Like You and Me, 2010) 6

Each of these conditions explains different characteristics of what this photography thing is, or what this photography thing could have been during their time.

These conditions however do not recognise photography as photography.t\ They remove the label photography treating it as a seemingly limited designation of the mediums capabilities. Photography is reserved for a printed photographic image, it is seen as a premeditation rather than a necessity for viewing.

In A thing like you and me Hito Steyerl (2010) suggests that there is a type of ac-

The ambiguous designation of an ‘image’ is instead applied to what was once a photograph.

tive participation in the image as a thing4. Steyerl refers to the importance of what came before in this active participation. This participation is in its creative possibili-

There is trouble fraught with the non-specificity of the word ‘image’. Its lack of fixity to

ties, and how a thing consists of tensions and invisible energies that are in a continu-

the photographic medium appears to add to this lost, confused and shifting state of

ous dialogue with one another. In the context of photography as a ‘thing’ these ener-

what photography is. Could this photography thing be less ambiguous than simply an

gies come from its history and it’s potential (Steyerl, 2010). The dialogue is a reaction

image or is this ambiguity key to this aspect of contemporary photographic practice?

precipitated within the zones of the past and the possible future. One way of exploring Steyerl’s idea of active participation is to look at the notion of a ‘post’ condition.

The word ‘post’ in art refers to a state where one thing reacts to another. Social, cultural, political, economic, or scientific factors are often what precipitate such changes, causing one thing to react to, and then replace, the former. In the past decade alone with the onset of the digital revolution there have been three major post conditions that attempt to describe the way in which photography (and art in general) is understood, treated and used. The first is a post-medium condition of art (Krauss 2000)5, the second is a condition of post-photography (Manovich 2004)6, thirdly, and most recently, is the notion of a post-internet condition (Olson 2007 and Mchugh 2009)7.

4. Steyerl uses the word thing to re-affirm the object. Specifically it is the object without a subject, the object that is in and of it self (Steyerl, 2010).

5. Post-medium refers to a reaction in the wake of postmodernism characterised by a search for purification in art forms. Krauss argues that there can no longer be a distinct medium specificity because this search for purification has transcended materiality altogether (Krauss 2000). For more on post-medium see Rosalind Krauss, “A voyage on the North Sea”: Art in the Age of the Post-medium condition (2000).

6. Post-photography is characterised by Lev Manovich as a state of photography reacting to the emergence of new media (digital technologies), and the impending obsolescence of traditional photographic media and modes of image making. With these two defining factors comes a reexamination of the way images are taken and produced (Manovich 2004). For further reading on post photography see Manovich, The Paradoxes of Digital Photography (2004).

7. Post-Internet suggests a state of commingling between traditional and new media combined with the notion that the internet is no longer a novelty, rather a banality a part of everyday life (Marissa Olson 2007 and Gene Mchugh 2009). Also see Artie Vierkant, The Image Object PostInternet (2010).

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A Thing from ry to something

post -

pre - histoeverything.

In reference to a dialogue between past things and the potential within them to affect future things From Pre-History to Post Everything was the name of a 2014 exhibition that was on display at Sean Kelly Gallery in Soho, New York City. Although the premise of the exhibition was “to create a visual dialogue between forms found in ancient cultures and the forms being investigated by today’s youngest generation of painters working with abstraction” (Sean Kelly Gallery, 2014) the idea of dialogue between the past and the present, and a renewed interest and aesthetic of abstraction is also characteristic of this ambiguous aspect of a photography thing and metaphorically a magenta thing.

The exhibition featured many diverse ancient objects selected for their functional, ceremonial, ritualistic, magical, mystical use and significance, and more importantly their abstract forms (see fig. 2). The selected objects represent “a purity of form and material” and are a “direct reflection of the time and culture they were produced in” (Sean Kelly Gallery, 2014).

In a similar fashion the young artists featured in the exhibition created abstract work (see fig. 3) that investigated the dualism of traditional processes and traditional media, and new processes and new media that exemplify this aspect of contemporary photography. While the ancients used abstraction as an agent for exploring the divine or something other, now artists approach abstraction as a language that references contemporary culture, a product of both the present time and place but also as a reference point to history external to the art object, a thing inherent to its un8

derstanding. The title of the exhibition is also emblematic of this ambiguous state.

fig.2: An example of the ancient artefacts featured in From Pre-History to Post Everything, 2014. Ritual Blade, China, Neolithic Period, Hongshan Culture, 3500 - 2200 B.C.

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fig.3: Installation view of From Pre-History to Post-Everything, at Sean Kelly Gellery, New York, June 27 - August 1, 2014

Concrete

plained by a single wavelength of light (Waldman, 2002). Physically and quantitatively

Magenta

it is already something other, something extra, or something intangible. Magenta also sits opposite the colour green in the spectrum of light. Therefore magenta can be dually thought of in terms of presence and absence, the absence of green. Conversely, green can be thought of as the absence of magenta.

In a similar light this is how the image of web magenta is composed when viewed on a screen. Screens typically use the RGB (red, green and blue) colour system. A screen positions red, green and blue pixels in close proximity to one another so as to produce the entire spectrum of colours from their vibrations.

If this is what this magenta thing concretely is, what could it then be? Could this colour This magenta thing8 too is ambiguous. In parallel to the confused state of this photography thing to understand what magenta is denotes to look at its physicality. In the context of magenta as a thing this history moves toward something mystical.

Looking at the way magenta concretely exists in the world is to look at its material qualities, and the limits and dysfunctions of these qualities. In terms of colour science, when investigating the concretion of magenta, the field of physics is most applicable to this study. Magenta, according to the physics of light, is able to manifest itself in two different ways. The first is projected light and the second is light reflected from a surface (Waldman, 2002).

Magenta is the eighth colour of the spectrum of light and is known as an extra-spectral phenomenon. This means that magenta appears outside of the visible spectrum of light.

When a single beam of white light is broken down into its spectral elements, magenta is missing (see fig. 4). Optically, in terms of light and additive processes, magenta is created by composing the elements of red (long wavelengths) and violet or blue (short wavelengths) when overlaid on one another. In this context magenta is unable to be ex8. It is interesting to note that the word magenta was first used in 1859 to describe this thing (Ball, 2003). Coincidentally this was around the same time photography was invented. For a more comprehensive explanation and history of colour see Phillip Ball, Bright Earth: Art and the invention of colour (2003) and John Gage, Colour and culture: Practice and meaning from antiquity to abstraction (1993), Colour and Meaning: Art, Science and Symbolism (1999) and Colour in Art (2006).

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be a paragon for this ambiguous aspect of contemporary photographic practice?

fig.4: Observation of a rainbow, Randwick, Sydney, Australia, 2014. Photo: Kieran Butler

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fig.5: Kieran Butler, red, violet or blue swatch for Something Like [

], 2014. #b20540 #9F00FF #273da8

From Adobe Red Green and Blue (RGB) colour system. These things mark the physical boundaries for this magenta thing in terms of light. This magenta thing sits extra, outside or somewhere inbetween these exterems of the visible spectrum of light.

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“In visual perception a colour is almost never seen as it really is - as it physically is.

This fact makes colour the most relative medium in art.” (Josef Albers, Interaction of Colour, 2013 pg. 1)9

9. Josef Albers, interaction of colour “is a record of an experiential way of studying colour and of teaching it” (Albers, 2010). This record has influenced my understanding of photography and magenta things through its teaching of looking, positioning and reconfiguring colours side by side.

This practice considers the way colours interact and the vibrations (behaviours) they produce.

Each time a colour is repositioned next to a new colour it behaves differently and new colours, as a result of this behavior, may be perceived.

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“The verb to abstract means to draw out or away from. But the noun abstraction is something already drawn out or away from - so much so, that like a geometrical figure or an amorphous silhouette it may have no apparent relation to concrete reality�. (Alfred H. Barr, Cubism and abstract art, 1936 pg. 11).

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Concrete

which certain characteristics have been abstracted. Everything that is concrete is only

Photography.

itself. Abstraction proceeds in a reductive manner, beginning with matter. The matter is transformed into something intellectual, it abstracts and idealises an object (Jäger, 2005 pg. 18). Conversely concretion is inductive, beginning at zero with an idea or an element. Concretion transforms something intellectual into a tangible thing, concretising and objectifying an idea to build upon and create new systems and structures. Concrete and abstract photography do not reproduce or represent. They produce and present.

(Jäger et al, 2005 pg. 15 - 21).

Could the concretisation of a thing be an abstracton of itself?

In a similar sense to look at photography concretely is to look at its material qualities and the limits and dysfunctions of these qualities.

“Concrete Photography represents: the concretisation of photography, a form of fundamental artistic self-examination and self-reflection that aims to foreground its very own conditions. The photographic means thus becomes the object of photography, and the medium itself the object.”

(Gottfried Jäger, Concrete Photography Konkrete Fotografie, 2005. pg.

15)

A simple way of thinking about concrete photography is photography that is about photography. Concrete photography is considered to be part of the broader spectrum of abstract photography10.

Artist and theoretician Gottfried Jäger refers to this concrete photography thing as pure photographs, photographs that are not abstractions of the physical world, rather, concretions of the pictorial possibilities contained within the material qualities of photography (Jäger, 2005 pg. 15). As Jäger explains concretion is to be understood in opposition to abstraction. Everything that is abstract has a prerequisite or a precondition from 10. For a comprehensive overview of abstract photography see Lyle Rexer, The Edge of Vision: The rise of abstraction in photography (2009), and Gottfried Jäger, The art of abstract photography, (2002) and Concrete Photography (2005).

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The assisted camera: Photoshop

and

the darkroom.

fig.6: Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS: 44 by 40 inches, 300 DPI,RGB square pixels, default gradient “Spectrum�, mousedown y=1520 x=4920, mouseup y=10400 x=5720, 2014.

Chromogenic Print, 44 x 40 inches.

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Intrinsic to understanding the relationship between concrete photography and abstract photography is photography’s inherent grounding in technology, the assisted camera (Blalock, 2014). Photography has always been underpinned by the materialisation of an image on a light sensitive surface. Today these surfaces shift between the traditional light sensitive emulsion and the electronic light sensors in a digital camera.

The work of photographer Walead Beshty explores more traditional modes of photographic technology. As a part of Beshty’s practice he creates colour photograms that are concrete, objects in and of themselves (see fig. 7 and fig. 9). Beshty’s photograms are meditations on the materiality of photography, and indicative of a renewed interest in old photographic processes. Each photogram is created either by folding or curling the light sensitive paper, exposing them to different coloured lights with the assistance of other implements such as magnets, and experimenting with the way photographic chemicals interact with light sensitive surfaces (Rexer, 2009).

Conversely, the work of Cory Arcangel (see fig. 6 and fig. 8) explores new modes of photographic technology and culture; his light sensitive surface is the pixel. The way Archangel’s work is made, however, is more characteristic of a photogram. Archangel engages with the preset functions and tools of Photoshop, experimenting with preselected coloured pixels, and X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) axis coordinates of the digital plane. These digital photograms are concrete, self-reflexive objects in and of themselves.

fig.7: Walead Beshty, Untitled (Chemical Fold), 2010.

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Although the work of Beshty would be recognised more easily as having evidence of the artist’s hand and process, I propose that there is equally the presence of the artist’s hand on a digital surface. At its most basic concrete photography (and photography in general) is reducible to numerical values. These values stand for light, time and space (Mckenzie, 2014). In the instance of both Photoshop and the darkroom, the artist is able to choose their values of production either by chance, intuition or a mapped out structure. As magenta is composed of red and violet or blue wavelengths, a photograph is composed of the former mentioned numerical values.

fig.8: Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS: 58 by 48 inches, 300 DPI, RGB square pixels, default gradient “Spectrum”, mousedown y=15350 x=12150, mouseup y=10100 x=7750; tool “Wand”, select y=4750 x=5200, tolerance=100, contiguous=off; default gradient, 2014.

Chromogenic Print, 48 x 48 inches.

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fig.9: Walead Beshty, Six Color Curl (CMMYYC: Irvine, California, July 19th 2008, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C), 2008. colour photographic paper.

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fig. 10 & fig. 11: (left) Mark Rothko, Orange and yellow, 1956. Oil on canvas and (right) Bridget Riley, FĂŞte, 1989. Screen print on paper, 53 x 76 cm.

Colour field painting and Op art used the medium of colour and the gesture of looking with the aim to free these two things from an objective context. In doing so colour and the gesture of looking became self reflexive subjects and objects (Gage, 2006). The works of Beshty, Arcangel and Jessica Eaton reference these preceding concerns of materiality. Although less concerned with the vibrations between colours each artist still investigates the aesthetic style used by these painters. Their main concern however is the matter of photography, investigating the photograph as a self referential thing.

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How close

can you

get to

magenta?

I posed the question to myself, how close could one get to this magenta thing?

How close can you get to magenta in 8 bits and 16 bits? 2014 meditates on the selfreflexive nature of the photogram (see fig. 12 - 14). This work asks what the material qualities of a photogram are and how they can be considered so. It is another attempt at using a photographic method to try touching without touching, to reach something other, something extra, to find out what a photogram of a magenta thing could be.

Adopting a strategy of surrealist automatism11 I used the track pad on my MacBook Pro to draw an intuitive form of web magenta. The form is abstract (a wiggly line) and reflective of no precise geometric figure. Each consecutive photogram is a mistranslation of an image of web magenta. Firstly the error in translation from screen to print (see fig. 12 and fig. 13), and secondly the error in computer programming (see fig. 12 and fig. 14).

The first mistranslation queries if Photoshop is programmed to allow a user to produce a photogram in this way. Mediated by the limitations of the track pad and the digital plane, are these photograms an abstraction of the pre-existing tools and numerical code of Photoshop? Or, do they engage with the pictorial possibilities contained within the material qualities of photography today, concretisations of Photoshop? These same questions can also be applied to the second mistranslation and the pictorial possibilities contained within the printing machine.

11. Surrealist automatism or automatic drawing applies chance to mark making by allowing the artists hand to move freely across a surface. In doing so this removes an aspect of rational control in the drawing process and is said to reveal a thing of the artists psyche or hidden energy.

For more on Surrealist automatism see David Maclagan, Line Let Loose: scribbling, doodling and automatic drawing (2014).

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fig. 12: Kieran Butler, How close can you get to magenta with 8 bits and 16 bits?, 2014.

Photoshop, screen capture

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fig. 13: Kieran Butler, How close can you get to magenta with 8 bits?, 2014

fig. 14: Kieran Butler, How close can you get to magenta with 16 bits?, 2014

8 x 10 inches

8 x 10 inches

fig.5: Kieran Butler, variations of magenta swatch for Something Like [

], 2014. #ff00ff #bf10a4 #d118b7 #e971c0. From Adobe

Red Green and Blue (RGB) colour system. These things are a selection of the many ways magenta can be perceived when questioned, pulled apart and revised or reimagined.

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Theoretically there

is

no such thing colour photograph

as

a

The question of how close can one get to a thing is addressed when looking at the photographic practice of Jessica Eaton. Eaton’s work lies on a thin line between concrete reality and abstraction; it is something ambivalent because, according to Eaton, “theoretically there is no such thing as a colour photograph” (2014).

So what is this thing we are looking at if not a colour photograph? Eaton’s practice focuses on a dialogue between the Munsell colour system and the materiality of photography to create harmonies12. These abstractions again hark back to the work of the abstract expressionist and colour field painters. Eaton’s cfaal (Cubes for Albers and Lewitt) series (see fig. 16 and fig. 17) are photographs of black, white and grey geometric shapes. Eaton has used a process of layering primary colours, double exposures and repositioning her shapes in front of the camera to create these colourful abstractions.

Viewing Eaton’s work causes to look twice. Her works are simultaneously something external to the camera whilst also something very concrete within photography. Her work comes across undecidedly, oscillating across the external and internal spaces of the camera. By revising and referencing a history (past things) of abstraction and photography Eaton has imagined these photography things into being.

12. For more on colour systems and colour harmony see Faber Birren, A grammar of colour; a basic treatise on the colour system of Albert H. Munsell (1961), Albert H. Munsell, A colour notation: An Illustrated system defining all colours and their relations by measured scales of hue, value and chroma (1961) and Zena O’connor, Colour Harmony Revisted (2010).

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fig. 16: Jessica Eaton, cfaal 346, 2013 archival pigment print, 40 x 32 inches edition of 4 plus 2 artist’s proofs

Fig. 17: Jessica Eaton, cfaal 322 (B study), 2013 archival pigment print, 25 x 20 inches edition of 5 plus 2 artist’s proofs

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ii [ r

e ] i m a

g i n e .

27

Mystical Magenta

In addition to looking the futile gestures of physically reaching for something and drawing are combined in my studio practice. These gestures form a meditative process in my attempt to understand and reimagine what magenta and photography things are.

After considering the concrete properties of a magenta thing (and a photography thing), what it is or rather, what it could be moves into something mystical13. Broadly looking at Western new age adaptations of Taoist, Buddhist and Hindu yogic practices magenta is typically associated with a state of in-betweenness, or immanent transcendence.

It is the first of transpersonal chakras14 (Tansley 1984). For example according to a transpersonal chakra system magenta is associated with and used to represent the space just above an individual’s crown. According to a typical chakra hierarchy this is the position that sits in between the body, that which is physical, and the divine, that which is metaphysical and transcends reality (Tansley 1984). It is a thing neither here nor there. The divine in this case is a total state of enlightenment and awareness for an individual. The extra spectral quality of magenta offers an explanation for its position in a chakra hierarchy.

To open the magenta chakra and reach a state of enlightenment an individual must under go a rigorous process of meditation depending on which system is being followed.

Different meditative approaches focus on the gestures of breathing, posture, and most relevant to this study looking (Krauss 2002, Wilhelm 1975). For example to focus on the gesture of looking an individual is removing themselves from external forces to draw out a thing from the inside. Drawing something out by meditating is a process that brings one closer to enlightenment.

13. Mystical in this sense is referring to something that is “spiritually allegorical or symbolic” (Oxford English Dictionary Online, Mystical, 2014) a thing that transcends human understanding.

More generally it refers to a thing that is obscure, enigmatic or esoteric.

14. A chakra is a point of energy that exists on the metaphysical body, an individual’s soul. Each point corresponds to a point on the physical body. This point is where invisible energies (also subtle energy, qi, aura, or essence) culminate actively participating in a harmonious dialogue (Leadbeater, 1927). For further reading on chakras, subtle energy and meditative practices see The secret of the golden flower : a Chinese book of life translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm (1975) and Caroline Myss Anatomy of the spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (1996).

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Looking for Magenta.

Or looking for magenta ?

vidual (Plato 400 BCE and Reymond 1963 ).

These two theories offer a way to consider the dualism between concrete and abstract states of photography and magenta. They illustrate how visual perception functions, and how form can be designated to colour in two different ways. The first being physical and more literal, pertaining to things that can be touched. The second being metaphysical and abstract, pertaining to things that are beyond human perception, other or

Like the binaries of a concrete magenta thing and a mystical magenta thing, it is impor-

mystical. This way of thinking allows us to consider photography as something more like

tant to also understand the dualism that exists between a photography thing and a ma-

drawing, or like a proposition; a window or a mirror15.

genta thing. Furthermore it is important to understand the dualisms that exist inherently within the material qualities of both of these mediums. This ambiguous state of photography and magenta exhibit the dualisms of concrete and abstract, fixed and unfixed, absence and presence, object and image, and additive and subtractive processes. In reflection of the history of optics and vision, the ancient theories of Aristotle and Plato help to illustrate the dualisms of photography and the colour magenta.

Firstly Aristotle’s theory of vision is called a theory of intromission (Waldman, 2002). An act of intromission refers to a state of being allowed to enter or putting one thing into another (Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2014). In the case of vision it means that light enters the eye or camera to create the sense of sight, or to capture an image. This theory forms the foundation of how the basic optical function of the eye and the camera are understood today. This theory also establishes the idea that vision occurs as a result of light from the world (Aristotle BCE and Reymond 1963).

Secondly, Plato’s theory of vision is called a theory of extramission or emission (Waldman, 2002). An act of emission refers to sending something out, sending something forth or disseminating an object or an idea (Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2014).

This theory describes the idea that light is projected out from the eye of an observer, and in the case of this research a photographic device, to touch objects in the world so as to produce a sense of visual perception, or to produce an image. While this theory is archaic it serves as an analogy for how one can think about and apply processes of meditation, intuition and experience to a broader sense of photography and web magenta. Rather than the photograph as a product of the world it is product of the indi29

15. John Szarkowski’s theory of photography followed the idea that a photograph was either a window or a mirror. A window being a gateway into another world, something new, and a mirror being a reflection of the world that it exists in. See John Szarkowski Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960 (1978).

A Series of

Attempts at intromission by

emission.

Fig. 18: Kieran Butler, Reaching out to try and touch magenta with my right hand (an attempt at intromission by emission no. 12), 2014. Single channel video installation.

Dimensions variable.

30

In reflection of considering photography as a proposition or something other, more like a drawing, I again posed the question to myself how close could one get to magenta?

The closeness I was referring to initially manifested as something tangible. I wanted to see how close one could physically get to this thing.

By performing an act of reaching out with my right hand (see fig. 18) or reaching out with a stick as an extension of my arm (see fig. 19), I realised that physically trying to see how close one could get to magenta was a futile pursuit. I was only able to get as close as the surface magenta was materialised on. This revelation raised my understanding of using the camera to try touching without touching, to aid me in moving beyond a physical encounter.

This series of attempts at intromission by emission aims at drawing out the essence of magenta with light and a mediating device. This work uses video and installation as a means of exploring the way an individual (the artist and the viewer) manifests the image of magenta on a surface (see fig. 20). It is the interaction of magenta as a light structure on a screen, and spatially through physical movement around the surface of the screen that illuminates this understanding of photography as a product of the individual rather than a moment taken from the world.

fig. 19: Kieran Butler, Reaching out to try and touch magenta with a stick (an attempt at intromission by emission no.15), 2014. single channel installation.

Dimensions variable.

31

fig.20: Kieran Butler, Something Like [

]. 2014

Installation view, Refining, Kudos Gallery, Paddington.

32

Lucas Blalock’s

drawing

machine

“Drawing, in this sense, is the activity of touching the world through describing or copying pictorially. It is an act of bringing closer, into one’s sphere of possession, spatially and intelligibly, something other. There is a sympathetic magic central to this activity, and I would make the case that in our world drawing has generally shifted from making marks with an implement to performing this activity with a camera” - Lucas Blalock, Drawing Machine, 2014.

33

fig. 21: Lucas Blalock, img167, 2012.

40.75 x 51.25 in, chromogenic print.

34

Lucas Blalock’s approach to photography encapsulates a reimagining of the processes and tools used to create the photograph, and in turn what it means to call these activities photography. For Blalock, the key in his process is the notion of the imagination or the mind of the artist, and the role the artist plays in the production of the photograph.

Blalock’s practice incorporates a hybrid method of production. Typically creating still lifes using a 4 x 5 inch analogue camera. Once a photograph has been constructed on film, they are then scanned into a computer and reimagined, rather than altered (see fig.

21 and fig. 22). In doing so, Blalock exploits the tools programed into Photoshop to draw out new material qualities of the photograph that exist when viewed digitally. The digital tools that Blalock employs are what he calls the “assisted camera” (Blalock, 2014). By doing so, Blalock is pointing out the contemporary bond between a production device and the general use of technology to adjust or find new qualities in the photograph produced. In the case of photography today, the assisted camera incorporates not just digital tools but also those of chemical processes and the surface chosen on which to materialise the photograph i.e. something other than a screen.

Blalock’s metaphor of drawing and photography is representative of the movements that photography is currently experiencing. This metaphor is also contiguous with the metaphor of photography and the image of magenta. Blalock describes how the idea of drawing incorporates all of the pencil stains, the assistance of the eraser, and motion of the artist’s hand in creating the drawing. A drawing still maintains its name through its materiality with its flaws and limitations intact and does not transgress to ambiguously being called an image.

Likewise, photography should not transgress to being designated as an ambiguous image. Like the process of drawing the magenta cast, overexposure, Photoshop alterafig. 22: Lucas Blalock, reflected, refracted, redacted (camouflage), 2009.

18 x 22 inches, chromogenic print.

tion, chemical stains, fading pigments and the screen glitch or file coding error of a photograph are all indicative of what photography is today. Blalock encourages his viewers to think of photography as a bad copy of the world, one that is not grounded concretely as a perfect mimesis of what the photograph is depicting (Blalock, 2014). By thinking of the photograph like a drawing, could the photograph be reclaimed from the ambiguous image and account for itself? Or is it still just a thing?

35

What

a photography

Fig. 23: A pulled apart LCD screen. Photo Kieran Butler.

36

is it

to pull apart thing?

The production of a photograph, as previously discussed, is a process of drawing. If a photograph is an abstraction of its own nature, or the world that it draws from, abstract photography16 is then a process of drawing out, or away from, with light. To draw something out conjures an image of removal, reduction or destruction in order to bring something closer to oneself. This process of drawing suggests that inherently there is something made absent when a photograph is produced. Like a drawing, the idea, gesture and aesthetic of eraser are intrinsic to photography and abstraction.

Taking this process of drawing out literally my research has lead me to attempt to take a photograph that perfectly represents this magenta thing (see fig. 24) and to experiment with a colour fading process (see fig. 25 and fig. 26).

The fading process involves using a pre-existing photograph and a prolonged exposure to a light source to fade the photograph. This experimental process is a play on the material limitations and dysfunctions of photography. The aim is to push the standard production of a photograph beyond its limits and to see what happens when the destructive potential of a photographic process is pointed back onto itself.

Attempting to produce this perfect photograph of a magenta thing is another futile pursuit and another way of pointing photography back onto itself. Even though the camera and its assistants are programmable in terms of light, time and space, each of these components are unpredictable and unstable in their own material nature. As a result of this fallibility it can be concluded that there is no point of singularity for a magenta thing or a photography thing. Instead it is characterised by these products, mistakes, errors, limitations, or dysfunctions. These accumulate as a series of points holding a similar center of gravity. It is a non-linear, multifarious thing.

The question still remains, what is this center and what could it possibly be?

16. The word photography comes from the words photo and graphy. Photo meaning light and graphy meaning drawing or writing. In this way photography can be thought of as a process of drawing with light. To combine this definition of photography with the definition for abstract, to draw something out, or away from (refer back to pg.), the term abstract photography then becomes a process of drawing something out, or away from, with light. (Oxford English Dictionary online, 2014)

37

fig. 24: Kieran Butler, Attempt no.1 to photograph a magenta thing, 2014.

Polaroid, 3.5 inches x 4.25 inchest.

fig. 25: Kieran Butler, Attempt no.1 to fade a magenta photography thing with light (a drawing out), 2014.

Polaroid, 3.5 inches x 4.25 inches.

38

fig. 26: Kieran Butler, Attempt no.1 to fade a magenta photography thing without light (a drawing out), 2014.

Polaroid, 3.5 inches x 4.25 inches.

fig.27: Kieran Butler, error swatch for Something Like [

], 2014. #64ffe4 #64fffe #35ecf7 #5591c4 #00ffff #00a2ff #add3ff From

Adobe Red Green and Blue (RGB) colour system. These things come from pulling magenta apart and reconfiguring it into something new. From a process of drawing out these things are produced from pushing the limits of a photography thing and a magenta thing. Each thing has been pointed back on itself and these are the results of the errors and dysfunctions that occur. One just needs to imagine the possibilities.

39

Magenta Matter

,

for a

Propositions thing.

fig. 28: Kieran Butler, Magenta matter, proposition for a thing no.1, 2014.

Inkjet print.

125 cm x 95 cm

40

Once things are removed, pulled apart or deconstructed they are then reassembled culminating in the creation of something new, something like nothing else. Magenta matter, proposition for a thing, 2014 (see fig. 28 – 30) utilises the meditative gestures of looking, reaching and positioning in order to delineate and organise ideas and materials that could possibly make a magenta thing, and subsequently a photography thing. This process of looking involves observing a range of materials (ribbons, paper, cardboard, molding clay, photographic prints and Photoshop preset functions) due to their malleable and ready-made qualities. Each material is pulled apart, interrogated and reconfigured to achieve a sense of harmony that represents the elements of a magenta thing and a photography thing. This approach follows Josef Albers technique of composition in order to interrogate the behavior of colour and their material qualities (Albers, 2013).

The resulting product is a photo-assemblage thing. It is an idea, an image, a material object, an article, an item, and an entity consisting of matter, something that occupies space. Magenta matter floats in and out of abstraction and representation. When viewing the work it appears to always be oscillating in between the two. This thing is neither here nor there and is characterized by photography’s prevailing sense of ambiguity.

Each material included in the assemblage is abstracted in an attempt to understand what they are and what they could be. The recognizable masking tape, scratches, photographic apparatuses (the copy stand and the c stand clamp) and Pentax logos ground the thing as something absolute yet equally ambivalent, something confused.

Ultimately Magenta Matter is a product of the imagination and the meditative process of looking and reaching. It is a proposition for the many ways and further possibilities of how this magenta thing and this photography thing could be pulled apart and reconfigured into something new, a thing like nothing else.

41

fig. 29: Kieran Butler, Magenta matter, proposition for a thing no.1 2014. Detail Inkjet print, 124 cm x 95 cm

42

fig. 30: Kieran Butler, Magenta matter, proposition for a thing no.8, 2014. Detail Inkjet print, 124 cm x 95 cm

Speculating on things,

and

[ r e ]

f o rm

“First there’s an idea [or a thing], and then we imagine that idea as a reality. Through the imagination things do become reality – a physical reality. So it’s not just a belief, but it’s a recipe for creating reality. It’s a recipe that works.” (Yoko Ono in Light + Photomedia, 2014 pg. 106).

Mackenzie explains “the implication is that in speculating on a possible future, we wittingly or unwittingly bring it into being” (2014, pg. 106).

In Light + Photomedia: a new history and future of the photographic image Jai McKenzie imagines a future 200 years after the official invention of photography (2014). This construction of possibilities speculates on and reforms the way a possible future for a photography thing can be thought of.

When speculating on the future possibilities of photography McKenzie states that it is important to consider “numerous coexisting realities” (2014, pg. 106) due to the nonlinearity of the future. The decisive factors to consider when speculating on the future according to McKenzie are history (past things), obsolescence and advancement in technology and communications, the integration of inner and outer spaces (things that are ideas and things that consist of matter) to a point of singularity, the malleability of these things and a cross pollination of individual experiences; experiences of both the artist and the viewer (2014).

The most central factor to future possibilities is the individual. The individual undergoes the aforementioned processes of drawing out, or away from, through the meditative gestures of looking, reaching and positioning. It is this path to abstraction, enlightenment, conception or, rather, individual experiences that is most relevant when speculating on the future.

43

“Every epoch not only dreams the next, but while dreaming impels it to wakefulness” – (Walter Benjamin in Marxism and Art: Essays Classic and Contemporary, 1979 p. 543).

44

fig.31: Kieran Butler, Re-imagine magenta swatch for Something Like [

], 2014. #00ff00, Adobe Red Green and Blue (RGB)

colour system. If we imagine could this thing be magenta? If green is perceived as the absence of magenta could this possibly be a magenta thing too? Try the gesture of looking. Meditate for a while and see what you see.

45

Conclusion:

≈

The medium of photography seemingly remains ambiguous, lost and confused. Photography and what it could possibly be is a malleable thing. Its matter is potential, or energy hidden within, which is derived from both outer and inner spaces. This energy comes from history and is one half of the creative locus. The other is the imagination, an individual’s ability to dream and contemplate things. Photography is always a composite of these two things, a thing that exists and a thing that could possibly exist.

Magenta in the same way is a thing that exists and is a thing that could possibly exist.

Metaphorically and physically magenta acts as a prism to help understand this ambiguous aspect of contemporary photographic practice. It’s this weird thing that sits in between being concrete and ambivalent. We don’t actually see magenta because it’s not technically visible. It doesn’t have its own wavelength; it’s not a physical, tangible Has this photography thing and this magenta thing been figured out yet? Do we now

thing as such. But at the same time it is because it is present, we can see it, reflect it

know what photography and magenta currently are, how they are inextricably linked and

and create it.

what they could possibly be? The answer is this thing is simply something like photography, something like magenta, something like abstraction, something like an image,

Looking, reflecting and creating as a process of drawing out, or away from are integral

something like an object, something like an idea and something like nothing else before

to my artistic practice. My practice is developing from this space of contemplation and

it while it is something like everything that came before it. It is neither here nor there,

is concerned with matter. I am interested in the matter of things, their material / immate-

constantly shifting and as such remains ambiguous and non-linear.

rial qualities, what they are and what they could be. Something like [

] actively

participates in this dialogue of past, present and possible future things. As a result of This research has aimed to revise, inspire and imagine different ways of looking at

drawing out or away from these photography and magenta things, pulling them apart

colour and photography. Searching for openness rather than a definitive answer this

and reconfiguring them Something like [

research leaves an empty space for the reader/viewer to fill in, either by asking more

what these things are and what they could be. These possibilities are also a proposition

questions or creating the boundaries for themselves.

that offer the viewer a new way to look at and consider the matter of photography and

] is a selection of the possibilities of

magenta things. My practice seeks not to answer questions surrounding the matter of With a grounding in key photographic theory, that at its core explores the dualisms of

things, but to ask more and impel new things to wakefulness.

abstraction and concretion and a process of drawing out to reach these two things, this research has shifted across individual examples from the history and philosophy

This paper operates as an assemblage of things (ideas, artworks, artist practices, theo-

of optics, colour, photography, concretion, abstraction and artistic practice to represent

ries, and colours) that when assembled in the same way my work is reconfigured cre-

a whole thing; the thing being photography and magenta. Not only do these examples

ate harmony and balance. This assemblage of ideas supports my artistic practice and

draw on the physical and interpretive significance of photography and magenta, but

leaves an open space for more questions to be asked and new ways of looking and

also their metaphorical significance in revising and reimagining what the spirit of pho-

thinking to be found, reconfigured or created.

tography currently is.

46

The magic lies in the ambiguity of things. It is up to the individual to determine more exactly what these things are.

47

Image

list

Fig. 7: Walead Beshty, Untitled (Chemical Fold), 2010. Image: http://www.thomasdanegallery.com/artists/34-Walead-Beshty/works/

Fig. 8: Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS:58 by 48 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient “Blue, Red, Yellow”, mousedown y=15350 x=12150, mouseup y=10100 x=7750; tool “Wand”, select y=4750 x=5200, tolerance=100, contiguous=off; default gradient, 2014. Image: http://www.thomasdanegallery.com/artists/34-WaleadBeshty/works/

Fig. 9: Walead Beshty, Six Color Curl (CMMYYC: Irvine, California, July 19th 2008, Fig.1:

Kieran Butler, Magenta swatch for Something Like [

], 2014. #ff00ff, Adobe

Fuji Crystal Archive Type C), 2008. Image: http://www.thomasdanegallery.com/

Red Green and Blue (RGB) colour system. Image: Kieran Butler

artists/34-Walead-Beshty/works/

Fig. 2: An example of the ancient artefacts featured in From Pre-History to Post Ev-

Fig. 10: Mark Rothko, Orange and Yellow, 1956. Image: http://www.albrightknox.org/

erything, 2014. Ritual Blade, China, Neolithic Period, Hongshan Culture, 3500 - 2200

collection/collection-highlights/piece:rothko-orange-yellow/

B.C. Image: http://www.skny.com/exhibitions/2014-06-27_from-pre-history-to-posteverything/works/

Fig. 11: Bridget Riley, Fête, 1989. Image:

Fig. 3: Installation view of From Pre-History to Post-Everything, at Sean Kelly, New

Fig. 12: Kieran Butler, How close can you get to magenta with 8 bits and 16 bits?,

York June 27 - August 1, 2014. Image: http://www.skny.com/exhibitions/2014-06-27_

2014. Image: Kieran Butler

from-pre-history-to-post-everything/installations/ Fig. 13:Kieran Butler, How close can you get to magenta with 8 bits?, 2014. Image: Fig.4: Observation of a rainbow, Randwick, Sydney, Australia, 2014. Photo: Kieran

Kieran Butler

Butler Fig. 14: Kieran Butler, How close can you get to magenta with 16 bits?, 2014. Image: Fig.5: Kieran Butler, red and violet or blue swatch for Something Like [

], 2014.

Kieran Butler

#b20540, #9F00FF, #273da8, Adobe red green and blue (RGB) colour system. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 15: Kieran Butler, variations of magenta swatch for Something Like [

],

2014. #ff00ff, #bf10a4, #d118b7, #e971c0, Adobe red, green and blue (RGB) colour Fig. 6: Cory Arcangel, Photoshop CS: 44 by 40 inches, 300 DPI,RGB square pixels,

system. Image: Kieran Butler

default gradient “Spectrum”, mousedown y=1520 x=4920, mouseup y=10400 x=5720, 2014. Image: http://www.coryarcangel.com/things-i-made/2014-018-photoshop-cs 48

Fig. 16: Jessica Eaton, cfaal 346, 2013 Image: http://www.mbart.com/artists/139-

Jessica-Eaton/works/

#35ecf7, #5591c4, #00ffff, #00a2ff, #add3ff, Adobe red, green and blue (RGB) colour system. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 17: Jessica Eaton, cfaal 322 (B study), 2013. Image: http://www.mbart.com/ artists/139-Jessica-Eaton/works/

Fig. 28: Kieran Butler, Magenta matter (proposition for a thing no.1), 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 18: Kieran Butler, Reaching out to try and touch magenta with my right hand (an attempt at intromission by emission no. 12), 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig 29: Kieran Butler, Magenta matter (proposition for a thing no.1), Detail, 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 19: Kieran Butler, Reaching out to try and touch magenta with a stick (an attempt at intromission by emission no.15), 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 30: Kieran Butler, Magenta matter (proposition for a thing no.8), Detail, 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 20: Kieran Butler, Something Like [

]. 2014. Installation view, Refining,

Kudos Gallery, Paddington. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 31: Kieran Butler, Imagine magenta swatch for Something Like [ age: Kieran Butler

Fig. 21: Lucas Blalock, img167, 2012. Image: http://www.ramikencrucible.com/friezeart-fair-2012/single-gallery/17099089

Fig. 22: Lucas Blalock, reflected, refracted, redacted (camouflage), 2009. Image: http://culturehall.com/artwork.html;jsessionid=49BDD00B4DA500B83C555AA2487BE 2E7?page=8932

Fig. 23: A pulled apart LCD screen, 2014. Photo: Kieran Butler

Fig. 24: Kieran Butler, Attempt no.1 to photograph a magenta thing, 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 25: Kieran Butler, Attempt no.1 to fade a magenta photography thing with light (a drawing out), 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 26: Kieran Butler, Attempt no.1 to fade a magenta photography thing without light (a drawing out), 2014. Image: Kieran Butler

Fig. 27: Kieran Butler, error swatch for Something Like 49

[

], 2014. #64ffe4, #64fffe,

], 2014. Im-

list

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