No Maps For These Territories
Philosophy has been informing my work for some time. Over the course of 2020 I found that the Centre for Philosophy of Memory gave open access to their guest lectures.
I lurked, became bold enough to ask questions, and was eventually asked to present my work to the group.
Prof. Mikaelian and Dr. McCarroll encouraged and supported the writing of an academic, peer-reviewed paper about my findings gained through art.
The article is available free.
Find the pdf here.
The title comes from a William Gibson documentary. I was also inspired by Gibson's book of essays, 'Distrust That Particular Flavour'.
The work was also featured in the British Origami Society magazine in October 2021.
Abstract: I begin by examining perception of photographs from two directions: what we think photographs are, and the aspects of mind involved when viewing photographs. Traditional photographs are shown to be mnemonic tools, and memory identified as a key part of the process by which photographs are fully perceived. Second, I describe the metamorphogram; a non-traditional photograph which fits specific, author-defined criteria for being memory. The metamorphogram is shown to be analogous to a composite of all an individual’s episodic memories. Finally, using the metamorphogram in artistic works suggests a bi-directional relationship between individual autobiographical memory and shared cultural memory. A model of this relationship fails to align with existing definitions of cultural memory, and may represent a new form: sociobiographical memory. I propose that the experiences documented here make the case for promoting a mutually beneficial relationship between philosophy and other creative disciplines, including photography.