Strategies of Freedom – Reflection

In creating this week’s reflection entry I have considered the following questions:

• your experience of the week’s activities and any feedback received
• any reconsiderations to the core methodology of your project
• the forms your project / photographs could potentially take moving forward

My practice is based around exploration and experimentation and my work is not based around a single methodology. My photographic research means that I have a broad understanding and appreciation of different methods and apparatus. In my practice these different apparatus were acquired to meet specific purposes. However as I have started to use them I have realised that they can in fact be used in ways that differ from the original purpose such as converting my DSLR into a pinhole camera or recording images with the lens not connected to the camera.

A good example is the GoPro cameras a small yet powerful video camera that was originally developed by the founder of GoPro as capture the surf adventures of his friends. I had been experimenting with compact videocameras since the early 2000s to record point of motorbike footage however quality of the was poor compared to Hi8 video. In 2010 when preparing for a motorbike tour of Cambodia we selected GoPros as the video device to record on bike footage due its size and weight. GoPros continued to be used primarily for Point of View video until 2016 when I decided as part of the MA to explore how I could use their timelapse photo capabilities to initially to create short clips that would tell the overall story of my coastal walks. This morphed into layered single images that allowed the City Canyons project to be visualised. The images being inspired by the work of Sir Francis Gilton in his Eugenics project.

This week has made me consider more closely the nature of the methods I use and if I am constrained by the apparatus or if I push against those boundaries. My assessment of my work such as re-seeing childhood and City Canyons is that for some projects I will push the boundaries of what is is possible based on the methods and apparatus used within practice.

In summary this weeks activites have encouraged me to revise my practice methodologies and in the micro project I am working on during this module I plan to capture the same location using multiple apparatus and consider the creation of an overarching methodology that positions each tool within my practice. I plan to reflect on the outcome of that work in the oral presentation at the end of the module.