Output details

In Praise of Multiplicity : Pluralism and Contemporary Photographic Art Practices

This essay examines the practice and theory of complex, multi-layered photographic images in contemporary art. Methods of working in which photographers use their medium to explore memory, identity and time in images are examined. A philosophical case is made for the mandate of plurality as a starting point for art practice, as well as in teaching art and design. Phenomenology and poststructuralist theory change the notion of the ‘seeing eye’ by differencing the self and laying down a moral and political agenda for plurality in addition to aesthetic and cognitive differencing. Non-Western, and particularly indigenous beliefs as well, echo this basic assumption of the implicit positioning from different orientations. Consequently, comparisons of many photographs with multiple aspects are made, including implications for ‘reading’ multi-layered images. This is particularly related to multiple and simultaneous perceptions, which are qualitatively various.

Given attention to the Other in contemporary thought and culture, these multifaceted aspects of photographic compositions suggest that multiplicity as intention and technique-- rather than single perspectives--is fitting as an artistic device for our times.

This output informs the conference contribution (and upcoming book chapter Grethe Mitchel (Ed), Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2014), ‘Poohsticks and Rivers of Referents’, London Knowledge Lab, sponsored by

University of Lincoln, The Art, Theory and Practice of Movement Capture, Conference, 19-20 Jan 2012. Here, Modeen investigated notions of desire through interrogation of theories of photographic representations of time and motion, coupled with ontological relationships between subject/object. This event was part of AHRC’s Beyond Text umbrella of research.

Further practical application of this research was realised in a collaborative multimedia installation with Iain Biggs, The Enigma of Place, part of the international conference, Sensory Worlds: Environment, Value and the Multi- Sensory, 7-9th December 2011, sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), University of Edinburgh.