PHO703 Critical Research Journal

Summary of Progress

| Phil Hill

My project centers around the idea of connection to community from the idea of idiorrythmic separation, which is how we live together but also separately in our own individual rhythms. Specifically, it is about my own sense of connection to the community where I have lived for the past 6 years but never felt like I truly belonged. The project became more poignant for me during the period of lock down as the exploration of separation and alienation became very real. I aimed to show this by photographing the windows in my home juxtaposed against images that I was able to create in the community. The series is named ‘The Pathos of Distance,’ which is a Nietzsche quote used by Barthes to discuss this idea of iddiorrythm and it seemed to sum up the shared emotional experience of what was happening to communities everywhere.

During the last module, I also started to explore and research the idea of what a documentary photograph is. To support this, I have been looking at the concepts of object orientated ontology (OOO) and Justified True Belief (JTB) as well as how these images are expected to look aesthetically and conceptually. This is what I aim to start exploring during this module.

View galleries:
The Pathos of Distance: I
The Pathos of Distance: II

Gettier and the Pyramids

| Phil Hill

I have been continuing to consider the documentary aesthetic and authority that exists in the photograph. If all photographs are constructions, can any of them be considered knowledge by using the epistemological definition of ‘Justified True Belief’ (JTB). In an attempt to explore this, I have been aiming to apply this to photographs by also looking at the Gettier problem (1963), which creates the conditions for knowledge, albeit based on a false premise. Additionally, I have also been researching the idea of object orientated ontology (OOO), which states that the art object can be a form of knowledge drawn from its aesthetic qualities (Harmon, 2018).

The research has been useful to define new ways to consider the photograph as a way to represent and document a subject in its raw form before they are approached from a constructivist learned knowledge of the world. I have written an essay, which can be viewed here:

View: Gettier and the Pyramids Essay
Bibliography

Gettier, E. L., 1963. Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?. Analysis, pp. 121-123.

Harmon, G., 2018. Object Orientated Ontology – A New Theory of Everything. 1st ed. London: Pelican Books.

Responding to Ruscha

| Phil Hill
Figure 1: Phil Hill (May, 2020) Response to Ed Ruscha task
View PDF: Blossom in the Time of Corona

I decided to take Ed Rucha’s ‘Twentysix Gasoline Stations’ (1963) as inspiration. It has always been a book that I have enjoyed, having discovered it very early on studying photography.

The images were selected from a number of 35mm film shoots that I have been doing between the modules, which are a departure from what I have been completing for my work in progress (Fig: 1). This was as I am researching to consider the way documentary photography is perceived and see if it could play a role in developing my approach.

Figure 2: Phil Hill (May, 2020) Spread from ‘Blossom in the Time of Corona’

I wanted to create a series that first might be perceived in an arbitrary and mundane way through aesthetically pleasing images of trees in blossom (Fig: 2), which then plays on that sense of collected awareness drawn from the context of this happening during the peak of the lock down. Beautiful yet surreal when considering the time in which the images were taken. I have also added a series of double exposures to juxtapose these feelings, which I aimed to show the chaos of the situation without photographing indexical gloves and masks that have appeared en masse (Fig: 3).

Figure 3: Phil Hill (May, 2020) Double Exposure from ‘Blossom in the Time of Corona’

I aimed to use Rucha’s book as a framework to present my own work and to form the basis for the narrative within the images and followed this with the blossom images, which also utilises ‘Twentysix Gasoline Stations’ in the format of the text as a way to provide additional context in the way that the images can be read. The title is also a reference to Ruscha’s book in the graphic style of the typeface and a subtle gradient on the cover to create a sense of the aging and yellowing of the pages that Rucha’s book has been subjected to over the years since its printing (Fig: 4), which is evident in the walk through video of the book (Fig: 5).

Figure 4: Phil Hill (May, 2020) Cover from ‘Blossom in the Time of Corona’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP4peTvkThQ
Figure 5: Ed Ruscha (1963) Twentysix Gasoline Stations walk through video
Bibliography

Ruscha, E., 1963. Twentysix Gasoline Stations. 1 ed. Los Angeles: National Excelsior Press.