Cracks in the moon and aliens in the sand
Cracks in the moon and aliens in the sand is part of a body of work 'Scanning Falling' that combines found objects and scanning to explore small worlds as well as the materiality of scanners in their capacity to capture images of small objects and a sense of space.
This project began during lockdown when I scanned finds of leaves and tree seeds made during my hourly walk. Because they were bulky I had to lever the lid off and noticed the ambient light was altering each scan so that no two were exactly the same. I'd discovered how to kid the scanner into slowing down and increase the dpi of the scan which, together with the altering daylight, also increased the jittery fall-off of focus at the edge of objects. I felt this produced a sense of the scanner struggling to focus - it didn't know what to put. This played into the contrast between my pandemic-induced nervousness and the calm inevitability of falling leaves which re-connected me to the environment I was overlooking when I connected digitally to my community online.
Scanning in different places at different times of day eventually evolved into a remote scanning practice and a small collection of desktop scanners! Each scanner processes ambient light and handles what it cannot focus on differently, meaning that each's algorythm becomes visible at the point of the blur within the fall off of focus.
In 2021, I had the opportunity to work with Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art as they renovated rooms at the top of Coventry's new music venue The Empire which became the Hyper Lab during 2021/22 Hyper Possible, and take some scans. There was a huge amount of dust and rubble mixed in with pigeon feathers and works paraphenlia. The few images that I captured there prompted some COVID19-inspired writing which eventually became a photo-essay 'Cracks in the moon and aliens in the sand'.
Coventry Biennial kindly published this as an artist book which can be viewed here as a (PDF). These are also available free while stocks last at some Coventry Biennial 2023 ...like a shortcut through the brambles venues.
This project began during lockdown when I scanned finds of leaves and tree seeds made during my hourly walk. Because they were bulky I had to lever the lid off and noticed the ambient light was altering each scan so that no two were exactly the same. I'd discovered how to kid the scanner into slowing down and increase the dpi of the scan which, together with the altering daylight, also increased the jittery fall-off of focus at the edge of objects. I felt this produced a sense of the scanner struggling to focus - it didn't know what to put. This played into the contrast between my pandemic-induced nervousness and the calm inevitability of falling leaves which re-connected me to the environment I was overlooking when I connected digitally to my community online.
Scanning in different places at different times of day eventually evolved into a remote scanning practice and a small collection of desktop scanners! Each scanner processes ambient light and handles what it cannot focus on differently, meaning that each's algorythm becomes visible at the point of the blur within the fall off of focus.
In 2021, I had the opportunity to work with Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art as they renovated rooms at the top of Coventry's new music venue The Empire which became the Hyper Lab during 2021/22 Hyper Possible, and take some scans. There was a huge amount of dust and rubble mixed in with pigeon feathers and works paraphenlia. The few images that I captured there prompted some COVID19-inspired writing which eventually became a photo-essay 'Cracks in the moon and aliens in the sand'.
Coventry Biennial kindly published this as an artist book which can be viewed here as a (PDF). These are also available free while stocks last at some Coventry Biennial 2023 ...like a shortcut through the brambles venues.
