Just Beyond Vision: Cameras, Systems, and Self

Author

Patrick Mulcrone, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2011

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

Department

Mass Communication and Media Arts

First Advisor

Motyl, H.D.

Abstract

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF PATRICK MULCRONE, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in MASS COMMUNICATIONS & MEDIA ARTS, presented on April 11, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: JUST BEYOND VISION: CAMERAS, SYSTEMS, AND SELF MAJOR PROFESSORS: H.D. Motyl, Sarah Lewison, Wago Kreider All of the images in this thesis project are the product of rules. I apply rules to the process of how or what the camera captures including using various sensors, scripts that dictate when a picture will be taken, and geographical information via Google Earth. The automation of the capture process invariably leads to chance occurrences as I lose direct control over the exact time the camera captures and some of what is going on in the picture plane. One byproduct of this process is that the camera system will take pictures repeatedly until the criteria for the rule is no longer met, the memory card runs out of space, or the battery completely drains. For many of the works in this exhibition, I use all of the pictures captured on the memory card in order to create an average image. Thus, the many become one. Traces of each image are present, but no single image takes priority over any of the others. In one way, we get to see everything all at once. However, as the number of images in the set increases, the averaging process buries details and temporal occurrences until they become no longer visible. Lastly, one must consider, in the case of using a sensor or a script to trigger the shutter of a camera, the camera is directly triggered by what is being sensed. If what is being sensed is not visual (temperature or intervals of time for example), is the camera capturing something beyond vision?