Photography: Artist Penny and Machine

Through investigation of strategically-chosen terms from the history and theory of photography this paper argues that while photography is traditionally understood as having unsettled definitions of vision it has also, more importantly, put pressure on beliefs and dogmas that pert ain to cognition, intentionality and creativity. To that end, the Universal Turing Machine as a conceptual model for photography prompts us to interrogate not images but instead, changing structures of relationship between components that comprise an imaging process. For photography, these are electromagnetic, optical, mechanical, chemical elements and procedures. Only an understanding of these as algorithmic can properly characterize photography as a novel artistic form. Further, this conceptual model of photography integrates the philosophy of photography into a richer philosophical framework, most notably that of media philosophy. Therein photography becomes more than just the contemporary sum of its capturing devices, imprinting processes or depiction traditions. Rather it is archetypical of multiple systems of abstraction and classification and various other symbolic processes of transformation.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Yanai Toister

Conference

Publication date: May 2018

Publication date (Print): May 2018

Pages: 1-6

Affiliations

[1 ] Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, Ramat Gan, Israel

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.7

SO-VID: bd5e459a-6499-4527-add0-445c852b9fca

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Politics of the Machines - Art and After

Conference acronym: EVA Copenhagen

Conference number: 7

Conference location: Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Conference date: 15 - 17 May 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Digital arts and culture

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVAC18.7

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

A ADAMSR BAKER 1983 The Camera Little Brown Boston, MA
A ADAMSR BAKER 1983 The Negative Little Brown Boston, MA
A ADAMSR BAKER 1983 The Print Little Brown Boston, MA
A BAZIN 2005 What is Cinema? Univ of California Press Berkeley
V BURGIN 1982 Thinking photography Palgrave Macmillan London
S CAVELL 1979 The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film Harvard Univ. Press Boston, MA
JM EDER 1978 History of photography Dover Publications New York
PH EMERSON 1973 Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art & The Death of Naturalistic Photography Arno Press New York
V FLUSSER 2000 Towards a Philosophy of Photography Reaktion London
V FLUSSER 2011 Does Writing Have a Future? Univ of Minnesota Press Minneapolis
V FLUSSER 2011 Into the Universe of Technical Images Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis
H.W. FRANKE 1988 The Computer - A New Tool for Visual Art The Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics 4 35 39
F NAKE 2010 Paragraphs on Computer Art, Past and Present 'Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting Past and Present in Computer Art' conference N. LAMBERTJ. GARDINERF. FRANCO BCS London 55 63
F NAKE 2012 Construction and Intuition: Creativity in Early Computer Art Computers and Creativity MCCORMACKM. D INVENTRO Eds. Springer Heidelberg
B NEWHALL 1980 Photography: Essays & Images: Illustrated Readings in the History of Photography The Museum of Modern Art New York
N NEWHALL 1975 P.H. Emerson: The Fight for Photography as a Fine Art Aperture New York
A TRACHTENBERG 1980 Classic Essays on Photography Leete's Island Books New Haven

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[1] A ADAMSR BAKER 1983 The Camera Little Brown Boston, MA

[2] A ADAMSR BAKER 1983 The Negative Little Brown Boston, MA

[3] A ADAMSR BAKER 1983 The Print Little Brown Boston, MA

[4] A BAZIN 2005 What is Cinema? Univ of California Press Berkeley

[5] V BURGIN 1982 Thinking photography Palgrave Macmillan London

[6] S CAVELL 1979 The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film Harvard Univ. Press Boston, MA

[7] JM EDER 1978 History of photography Dover Publications New York

[8] PH EMERSON 1973 Naturalistic Photography for Students of the Art & The Death of Naturalistic Photography Arno Press New York

[9] V FLUSSER 2000 Towards a Philosophy of Photography Reaktion London

[10] V FLUSSER 2011 Does Writing Have a Future? Univ of Minnesota Press Minneapolis

[11] V FLUSSER 2011 Into the Universe of Technical Images Univ. of Minnesota Press Minneapolis

[12] H.W. FRANKE 1988 The Computer - A New Tool for Visual Art The Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics 4 35 39

[13] F NAKE 2010 Paragraphs on Computer Art, Past and Present 'Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting Past and Present in Computer Art' conference N. LAMBERTJ. GARDINERF. FRANCO BCS London 55 63

[14] F NAKE 2012 Construction and Intuition: Creativity in Early Computer Art Computers and Creativity MCCORMACKM. D INVENTRO Eds. Springer Heidelberg

[15] B NEWHALL 1980 Photography: Essays & Images: Illustrated Readings in the History of Photography The Museum of Modern Art New York

[16] N NEWHALL 1975 P.H. Emerson: The Fight for Photography as a Fine Art Aperture New York

[17] A TRACHTENBERG 1980 Classic Essays on Photography Leete's Island Books New Haven

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