This is an offline version of the extended essay and does not show images which I do not have permission to show. A copy of the essay with all images is included in the GDrive for assessors. [Added December 2020 – there are some typos in this online version, please contact me for the submission copy supplied for assessment if required.]
Category: Extended Written Project
CS: Extract
In the age of entanglement
Photography discourse is littered with opposing statements such as ‘photography is more important than ever’, or else it might be ‘dead and irrelevant’. Are proclamations such as these becoming as questionable as the West’s mechanistic view of reality, which arguably tends to foster such binarised positions? If the West’s historical paradigm, dominated by isolated objects, people, and places, spread across the planet and universe were receding, and instead, reality increasingly perceived as emergent, dynamic, multi-dimensional, and rhizome-like, how would photography fare?
Drawing on Karen Barad’s agential realism, a synthesis of quantum science and poststructuralism, the ensuing discussion results in more questions than answers. The challenge is compounded because we are also invariably constrained by a “Cartesian habit of mind” (Barad, 2007: 49) which informs our imaginations, language and academic conventions. Barad’s phenomenologically informed philosophy urges us to review our ethical relationship with the universe. Their thesis challenges boundaries we assumed were fixed, including those photography has relied upon to promote itself even when claiming to challenge the status quo. While describing some tenets of agential realism, focusing in particular on the phenomenological nature of existence and Barad’s use of the word entanglement, work by a variety of practitioners is examined in an effort to make sense of apparently contradictory statements by well-regarded and oft-quoted theorists about the photographic image today. How can Michael Fried’s (2008) assertion, photography matters as art as never before remain valid alongside Daniel Palmer’s (2014:144) statement, photography as we once knew it is practically over? Could both be true simultaneously in an entangled world? Will photography escape its Cartesian origins as it evolves into ‘image-making’ in a digital universe? The possibilities undoubtedly demand a deeper discussion than the stipulated 5000+/- word limit allows for, however, the paradigm described above presents image-makers of all persuasions with conundrums that increasingly cannot and should not be ignored.
SJField 2020
End of Module Reflection: CS
Three-minute read
In my Contextual Studies essay, Image in the age of entanglement, I discuss the journey away from a Cartesian understanding of reality towards one that is networked, non-linear and lively. I was influenced by a wide range of writers but focused in particular on Karen Barad, author of Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and The Entanglement Of Matter and Meaning (2007).
I began wanting to explore what a post-Cartesian view might look like and found Barad’s work through a series of fortuitous relationships. Getting to grips with Barad’s ideas was and continues to be challenging. I do not come from a scientific background. I found it all very difficult indeed to research and understand. However, in doing so, my own view has developed and my way of working too. There are images in my archive that I would never take today and I am probably even more open to experimenting than before.
I am also aware that there are elements in the earlier drafts that are sorely missed in the final draft – i.e. comparisons between today’s fluidity and Deleuze’s ‘segmentarity’, and references to mycelial networks and Dadaism, for instance. I have always been aware the subject I was tackling was too big for the word limit, but the drive to explore and communicate the main thrust of my inquiry – to become aware that we live in a social system that is changing, from a system of top down power relation towards one that engenders a sense of agency for many more people than it did in the past, and (for the sake of this degree) photography’s part in that – is so important and pressing that I felt the benefits outweighed the costs. Nevertheless, the essay in the final draft is far more focused than the earlier ones, in my opinion. Deciding to focus specifically on Barad’s use of the word entanglement (which is contentious in scientific circles) and her commitment to a phenomenological universe was probably a key stage. Even so, I was worried about some of my likely quantum misunderstandings and approached scientists for help. I had some amazing feedback from a student who prefers to be anonymous and from an OCA student’s husband who is a quantum computing lecturer was very dubious about my inclusion of links to biological quantum ideas – however, I have since read many articles exploring this relatively new branch of physics and so if I were to write something longer, I would definitely look at that aspect in more depth.
Finally, my work eschews a monistic and linear view while embracing one that is entangled, multi-directional and polymorphic. It asks what image-making is, was, and is becoming, and although the photograph is definitely a protagonist, it must share the stage with other forms of exteriorisation. In doing so, the collection of expressions and traces on pages and screens are an investigation into the decoding and recoding of reality – and perhaps prompts us to believe we have the wherewithal to make critical and much needed revisions as we (re)discover more about our place within the universe.
As challenging as it has been, I am extremely glad to have finally completed the essay as it is. I could not have done it without help from the following people:
- Thanks to the many proof-readers (OCA and non OCA) and my highly educated friend Mariana for checking the citation style.
- Thanks to the three scientists who read through earlier drafts, Professor Peter Doel – University College London, Professor Alan Woodward – University of Surrey, and a quantum mechanics student who prefers to remain anonymous.
- Thanks to artist Rowan Lear, who is far more knowledgeable about Karen Barad and agential realism than I am, for reading through excerpts I was unsure about and clarifying for me.
Barad, K. M. (2007) Meeting the universe halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.
Rubinstein, D. and Fisher. A. (ed.) (2013) On the verge of photography: imaging beyond representation. [PDF] Birmingham: Article Press. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/25121246/On_the_Verge_of_Photography_Non-representational_Imaging (Accessed 14/06/2020)
Zuboff, S. (2019) The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. (First edition) New York: PublicAffairs.
Is Consciousness a Quantum Phenomenon? | by Zia Steele | Whiteboard to Infinity | Aug, 2020 | Medium
A super relevant article to both BOW and CS – joins the dots between the two and wish I’d found it sooner
If you’re reading this right now, you’re either a conscious being or an internet bot. (Or both.) That’s pretty obvious, but what’s not obvious is what makes you conscious. Consciousness is defined as…
— Read on medium.com/whiteboard-to-infinity/is-consciousness-a-quantum-phenomenon-fcbb65bed950
CS A5: Final edit of essay – Image in the age of entanglement
Final version of extended essay:
Earlier version:
13/08/20 CS A5 Image in the age of entanglement Sarah-Jane Field 512666 – offline
Please note, I have requested permission from relevant artists to publish their images online. If artists have not replied, the online version of the essay has blank spaces where an image should be but captions are included. OCA students/staff are welcome to email me for an offline copy showing all images. I will update this PDF if other artists give permission before the deadline for making changes arrives.
Please see the initial submission for OCA reflection.
In addition to the PDF, I will include the following in the final submission for assessment.
- Thanks to the many proof-readers (OCA and non OCA) and my highly educated friend Mariana for checking the citation style.
- Thanks to the three scientists who read through earlier drafts, Professor Peter Doel – University College London, Professor Alan Woodward – University of Surrey, and a quantum mechanics student who prefers to remain anonymous.
- Thanks to artist Rowan Lear, who is far more knowledgeable about Karen Barad and agential realism than I am, for reading through excerpts I was unsure about and clarifying for me.
BOW & CS: Ongoing thoughts/reflection re-machine learning and movement
- I have continued to work on the ePublication. I have been wondering about including text but when I looked yesterday, I saw that the problem was not the text itself, it was my over-enthusiasm for the animations. I have removed all animations from text and left it only with the images which I think of now as doing some sort of slow dance to Simon’s music – of course, I can’t guarantee people will click on the music and that is something to consider – does it matter, isn’t that the point – there is a choice and some action, which may or may not occur, required from anyone interacting. Anyway, the e-pub works much better this way, although I am still trying to figure out why a certain GIF won’t do its thing and will look at that tonight. Am getting there with it. Have increased the size of the text to 14 which I’d never do in print but it seems OK on my screen – the problem is there are smaller screens too. When viewing, use Chrome rather than Safari – have not checked on other browsers yet and still need to see what happens when saved for e-books, now sure about that. Will also need to look on tablets.
https://indd.adobe.com/view/6999c82e-8c0f-42f4-a4c6-f887a98d1ef9
- I have been playing with an App called Runway ML – and trying to figure out how it can help me. I suspect it will be good for me after BOW/OCA life but it’s good to know there is this bridging facility out there now. I need some uninterrupted time to spend with it – but I managed to do one of the more simple tasks the other day when I put a film which I used for earlier work, Polar Inertia (DI&C A2), through a machine learning programme that recognises body movement (see end post). I can’t use the work as this exact thing has already been done by Broomberg and Chanarin very recently in their amazing work Anniversary of a Revolution (Parsed) by Broomberg & Chanarin. Their version is excellent and uses Vertov’s black and white footage which contrasts well with the colours although I quite like the bomb film colour with it too – and the blank coloured frames in that film which I used as moving blocks in Polar Inertia are the same colours as the animated stickmen which I really love. I had included reference to B&C’s film in my essay but cut it due to word count. For now, in any case, I am more interested in generative image programmes but to do that I must find a way to create a dataset – and that includes writing a bit of code (copying and pasting it to be precise). Again, I need uninterrupted time to do this. I hope I can find a way before the deadline as it would be good to include a GIF made this way in the epub.
- I started reading Levi-Strauss’s the Raw and the Cooked at long last – have wanted to since UVC but was kept busy with other OCA texts and research. There is so much that rings a bell – especially when he writes, he will be accused of making a book without a subject. This work of mine which explores changes to how the world sees sometimes feels like it lacks a subject. Perhaps I will have more to say in a forthcoming blog or final summation. I am waiting to speak with Ruth after her holiday and will need to send the book to print very soon after that. Assessment deadline is looming!
Added later the same day:
I continued to eliminate animations, using it more judiciously. I have managed to get a GIF which wasn’t working to move – spent all afternoon wondering why and then suddenly it did, really odd. Thought it was mov. vs MPEG4 files but apparently not. Anyway, it moves now. I still have the following to do –
- Add edits to the film – the mesh person and perhaps a few snippets of the movement machine learning where I’ve already used the bomb film.
- Try to get something with the shadow puppets moving – either stop motion or Processing to make a GIF of them animated, placed where currently there is a still.
- Figure out how best to introduce the music – if I speak at the beginning I could talk about it. I’m not sure how that will work. I have added an instruction at the end of the book. I am also wondering about having a type of digital wrap around that gives some guidance about how to operate the ePub.
Write something – I feel more and more that I need to do this. I wondered if it could be a loose pamphlet/flyer type thing to include in the printed book, and not quite sure in the ePub – maybe spoken at the beginning.
CS A5: thoughts New Materialism(s) – Critical Posthumanism Network
One of things I have not touched on at all in the essay is New Materialism. Barad’s work comes under that heading and it seems remiss not to mention it. I’ve avoided it though as the topic I’ve covered is so vast, and my initial iterations were so rambling, I felt it was adding yet another idea into the mix which would be confusing/diluting. Since the essay is more streamlined now (I think) perhaps this is something I can address but I wonder if it would be better to add it to the appendix. As I said, I think I need to severely cut Appendix no. i anyway, maybe altogether – but perhaps I can add it there.
Then, if I do that, should I add a brief criticism of New Materialism? Zizek has stuff to say (but he sniffs a lot and thought Trump would be better than Clinton so I’ve less time for him lately …)
Things to consider..
New Materialism(s) – Critical Posthumanism Network
— Read on criticalposthumanism.net/new-materialisms/
CS A5: Extract updated
Photography discourse is littered with opposing statements such as ‘photography is more important than ever’, or else it is ‘dead and irrelevant’. These proclamations have lately become as problematic as the long-held mechanistic Western view of reality, which arguably fosters these kinds of binarised positions.
However, we are no longer living in a world consisting of isolated objects, people, and places spread across the planet and universe, while time is only singular and forward-moving. Instead, reality seems increasingly emergent, dynamic, multi-dimensional, and rhizome-like.
Drawing on Karen Barad’s agential realism, a synthesis of quantum science and poststructuralism, the ensuing discussion results in more questions than answers. It may also be hindered by inescapable limitations of, to quote Barad, the “Cartesian habit of mind” (2007: 49) most of us inhabit. Such habits inform our language, academic conventions, and, of course, photographic critical theory. Barad’s phenomenologically informed philosophy is a threat to the boundaries photography has used to promote itself even while claiming to challenge the status quo. While describing some tenets of agential realism, focusing in particular on the phenomenological nature of existence and Barad’s use of the word entanglement, a range of lens-based art is examined in an effort to make sense of apparently contradictory statements by well-regarded and oft-quoted theorists about the photographic image today. How can Michael Fried’s (2008) assertion, photography matters as art as never before remain valid alongside Daniel Palmer’s (2014:144) statement, photography as we once knew is finished? Could both be true at the same time in an entangled world? The possibilities undoubtedly demand a deeper discussion than a 5000+/- word limit allows for, however, the paradigm described above presents image-makers of all persuasions with conundrums that increasingly cannot and should not be ignored.
(Edited 7/8/20)
History
The long-held Western view which suggests isolated and unrelated objects, people, and places are spread across the planet and universe, while time is only singular and forward moving, is less and less convincing. Rather than seeing a hierarchical collection of separate entities existing within linear space and time, reality increasingly feels emergent, dynamic, multi-dimensional, and rhizome-like.
Drawing on Karen Barad’s synthesis of quantum science and poststructuralism, coined ‘agential realism’, this 5350-word essay results in more questions than answers. It may also be hindered by inescapable limitations of, to quote Barad, a “Cartesian habit of mind” (2007: 49). Such habits inhabit our language and are embedded in our perception of reality, asacademic wellconvention, asand academicphotography conventioncritical theory. However, structural transformation means inevitable changesshifts, whether we agree or not, are aware, in denial, or remain oblivious. While describing some key tenets of agential realism, focusing in particular on the phenomenological nature of existence and Barad’s use of the word entanglement, a range of lens-based art is examined in an effort to make sense of apparently contradictory statements by well-regarded and oft-quoted theorists about the photographic image today. How can<span style="color:var(–color-text);font-size:1rem;"> </span><span style="color:var(–color-text);font-size:1rem;">Michael Fried’s (2008) assertion that, photography matters as art as never before (2008), isremain queriedvalid alongside Daniel Palmer’s suggestion that photography is all but over (2014:144).is finished? Could both be true at the same time in an entangled world? The possibilities probably demand a longer and deeper discussion than a 5000+/- word limit allows for, however, the paradigm described above presents image-makers of all persuasions with conundrums that increasingly cannot and should not be ignored.</span>
CS: A5 Edits following tutor feedback
Following the chat I had with Matt a couple of week’s ago and his feedback, I have finally managed to get the word count down – I suspect it is a bit less than stated on the cover now and will recount before assessment (I counted over the weekend but cut more this morning.)
I have emphasised the link between poststructuralism and the science philosophy/science using Barad’s interpretation far more than before, not so much due to Matt’s response – in fact, he told me not to undermine my argument after I attempted to accommodate notes made by two quantum scientists, both of whom said, but you can’t feel quantum fluctuations. It was that which made me grit my teeth (yes, I am aware!) and look through Barad’s work again and then to underscore the links between PS and the science.
Despite my frustrations, I am grateful to the scientists as their comments resulted in a more focused essay, I think, and I need to add thanks to them on the document.
I need to write to artists included and request permission to show their images on the blog version of the essay.
Introduction still isn’t quite right and I need to look at it again.
Appendix One could probably do with being heavily edited or even cut altogether now as I address the topic in the essay more.
At this point, finally, if any peers do read this yet again, I am now ready to address proofing/corrections if you notice them. It will be proofed by someone external in any case before the assessment deadline and has been through Grammarly. I do hope to God I have picked up the really daft mistakes/typos now and that everyone’s name is right.
CS A5 Image in the age of entanglement – July27th
CS A5: Tutor Feedback
Matt read a recent version which I had worked on following some interaction with a couple of quantum scientists.
I have since, following a chat with Matt, reworked the essay a bit and am now at a point where I need to edit down again – I suspect it is about 1000 words over but am just guessing and so I will need to keep working on it for a while longer to bring in it down to the correct word count. Online CS A5 Image in the age of entanglement – July14th
Written by the student, and endorsed by the tutor.
Key points
- An interesting, ambitious essay which can be improved with some additions and clarifications.
- Does the argument suggest we need a “new way of thinking about any form of representation” (MW) altogether?
Summary of tutorial discussion
- I need to expand on why I have ‘lumped’ photography and moving image together. (Hopefully can be done with a couple of references either paraphrased or cited directly.)
- No need to undermine myself – believe in the post-structuralist argument I’m making.
- Do I need to follow through with the discussion about still photography falling short, if so, what comes next, process-led practice, participatory practice, etc. Matt asks, “Is the barrier created by the lens between artist and subject too great to undo? Is the obvious next step to eliminate the use of photography at all?”
- Perhaps there is a bit of room to discuss the tyranny of Western cinematic montage patterns and conventions being absorbed into our perception of time, personal narrative etc.
- Be clearer about indeterminism being different to uncertainty (clarify the passage)
- Temper a couple of overly bold statements.
- Have not made enough of a case for introduction of imperialist discussion – can it be woven in more fluently or else dropped?
- From Matt: The anthropologist, Roger Sensi, in his book, Art, Anthropology and the Gift, looks at the relationship between art and anthropology and particularly about the nature of collaboration and exchange. Quoting Marilyn Strathern from her work, The Gender of the Gift, he says, it is at the point of interaction that a singular identity is established’. From this perspective, people are constantly being made and re-made through relations, and things are constantly being created not in contradistinction to persons but “out of persons”. Through gifts, people give a part of themselves. They are not something that stands for them, a representation, but they are “extracted from one and absorbed by another”. This continuity between people and things is what she called a “mediated exchange,” as opposed to the unmediated exchange of commodities, which is based on a fundamental discontinuity between people and things”.
Reading suggestions
See above
Summary
| Strengths | Areas for development |
| Interesting and challenging subject | No need to justify or undermine self |
| Relevant | Explain why putting photography in the same category as moving image |
| Ambitious | Be clearer about introducing the imperialist section |
|
|
Any other notes
| Tutor name | Matt White |
| Next assignment due | n/a |
SJField - OCA Level Three Study Blog 