My collated findings represent a networked understanding of space that can be understood in a similar vein to Nils Braun’s Contemporary Fragmented Vision (2016). In lieu of a fragmented collation of visual data, my projects ask what can be gleaned from other modes of seeing when employed in a comparable manner. Gathered together, the audio exerts lay bare the subjective nature of my chosen site as it is experienced by each interviewee. A suggestion of the site in physical terms is communicated via the commonalities of each description, yet the situated interaction of person and place takes prominence. By employing an active medium in my investigative process as opposed to the static quality of photography (as understood via McLuhan’s conceptions of audio versus visual space), this situatedness is brought further to the fore.
One might be tempted to ask whether the above recording focuses on the site of the fountain or on those interviewed for the project? In doing so, light is shed on how we choose to define place as a concept – and whether a place exists on equal terms in our shared collective consciousness, as made evermore visible by the internet. This consciousness cannot help but be unobjective, and raises further questions as to the validity of empirical, qualitative thinking when describing any site of prominence.
The site of my investigation can therefore be said to have shifted entering in to the interrogative stage of the project, away from the physical location itself. From here, I hope to lay out the contradiction between a fixed objective ideal of place and the lived experience therefore. Creating a brief, I am inviting participants to interpret the above recording, converting it back into a visual format as might be understood by an image-based online media platform and its users. The results will hopefully make for a more interesting version of Google image search, with the artist playing the role of search engine utilising a limited dataset.
Braun, Nils. (2016) Contemporary Fragmented Vision [3D Printed Statue]. Available at: https://nilsbraun.ch/Projects/Contemporary-Fragmented-Vision (Accessed: 18/10/21).
McLuhan, M. and Fiore, Q. (1967) The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. Corte Madera, CA: Ginko Press Ltd.