CLARE STRAND, THE HAPPENSTANCE GENERATOR

The facisnating work of Clare Strand has been a continuous and reoccurring inspiration with regards to my current practice. Both conceptually and visually, her work challenges, highlights and questions aspects of the photographic medium that I find myself falling into and around, especially during the research i've undertaken for this specific body of work.

The Happenstance Generator is a large Perspex chamber on a metal plinth. Inside the chamber a selection of the artist’s archives of research images from the past 30 years, are blown about by hidden fans. The machine randomly propels images towards the transparent surfaces of the chamber, before being repositioned again by the movement of the air. The images are highlighted for one moment and disappear the next; much in the way that data and image sequences appear and disappear, grow and diminish in importance, in the constantly changing landscape of everyday visual encounters

When considering the options for displaying my work for the final exhibition, I am intrigued by having an instillation piece in a similar style to to this. For my work to translate what I intend to say with regards to photography's materiality, I feel like having a more dynamic, engaging and interactive feature within the space would enhance and reinforce this. Clearly, this will deem to be somewhat challenging to practically undertake, considering the circumstances and restrictions present with regards to creating the exhibition. However, I will have a further look into different possibilities of creating a virtual instillation piece, seeing what works best in translating my ideas.

Questions to consider when looking at both the works of Clare Strand and Erik Kessels :

Can we relate these two pieces of work?

Are they exploring similar ideas and concepts in the realm of photography?

Are they commenting on the position of photography?

Or are they photographers?

what constitutes as a 'photographer'