CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I ha\e worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Signed MFA PROJECT DOUBLEDEATH-THE VERY PRESENCE OF THE ABSENT SANDRA SCHEFFKNECHT UNSW, SYDNEY 2007 UNSW 2 O MAR Ü008 UBEMìI SPECIAL THANKS TO: THE SPONSORS Alphabank, Berneck Casinos Austria, Bregenz Marktgenneinde Lustenau Rechtsanwälte Dr Hannes Grabher & Dr Gerhard Müller, Lustenau THE RHINO DRAWINGS Dipl.-Ing. Arch. Piet Muxel THE PRODUCTION COMPANY inflate, London GREAT FRIENDS AND SUPPORT DURING THE PHOTOSHOOTS Natalie Boog, Sandra Landolt, Eva Müller Francisco de Paula, Günther Hoidyssek THE BEST PARENTS Rudi und Marianne Scheffknecht MY SUPERVISOR Debra Philips TABLE OF CONTENTS 9 ABSTRACT 11 INTRODUCTION 13 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC OBJECT THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DEATH THE NOTION OF DOUBLEDEATH 16 REALITY AN D TH E HYPERREAL 23 DESCRIPTION PRACTICE BODY OF WORK 28 ILLUSTRATIONS PRACTICE BODY OF WORK 45 ARTISTS COMPARED 51 CONCLUSION 53 ILLUSTRATIONS ARTISTS COMPARED 57 BIBLIOGRAPHY 60 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 62 EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS Fig.1 Pavel Filonov, Goeiro, 1930 „After all, man changes more slowly than the world he changes himself. Man has nothing to do but contemplate the image of a world diffused as if in a kaleidoscope into thousands of micro-images and micro-worlds." (Fig. 1) This Master of Fine Arts Research Documentation, submitted in partial fulfil- ment of the award of Master of Fine Arts, gives an overview about the main ideas that are most significant for my practical work. Rather than working towards a deep theoretical approach, this thesis addresses important theoretical issues as part of the developmental process of the studio research within the Master of Fine Arts degree. Firstly, the notion of doubledeath is introduced. The exploration of the idea of the photograph as a material object follows, in its relation to death and the trans- formation to what is here called doubledeath. Next, photography's impact on society is explored, especially its influence on our perception of reality. In addition, relevant theoretical ideas which inform the work are acknowledged. A description of the practical body of work and the contemporary context within which the work has been produced follows. MAIN IDEA Reality today is informed by the presence of the absent. The main idea of doubledeath explores the presence of the absent as a metaphor related to contemporary life. TITLE DOUBLEDEATH - THE VERY PRESENCE OF THE ABSENT KONSTRUIERTE GEGENWART (= CONSTRUCTED REALITY) ABSTRACT The notion of doubledeath, as an idea to generate work, can be seen as both an ironic reflection on the medium of photography and a critical attempt to comment on contemporary culture. In short, the inherent charact- eristics of the photographic medium and its function within society are combined. Photography embodies both death and the beginning of something autonomous and new in the very moment of the picture-taking process. A photograph is a mere simulation of what was once there, in front of the lens, transformed onto photographic paper. It then opens up a whole range of new possibilities to the viewer. The photograph's almost life-like appearance informs the photographic myth, that is the idea that a photograph provides evidence of absolute truth. This characteristic together with the possibility of manipulating and altering a photograph has been continuously exploited by mass media to influence, make and guide our perceptions towards reality. These characteristics of image-making have left the borders between fiction and fact blurred. Living in a worid of over-mediation it is hard to escape and find one's way around in this melting pot of the various realities suggested. Reality today is informed by the present trace of an absent original. When this is recorded photo- graphically, it could be described as a doubledeath. Both this research documentation and the studio work are social com- ments on contemporary life and artmaking. Where photographs record scenes from life informed by visual simulation (the presence of the absent) the notion of doubledeath becomes most obvious. Moreover, they reflect contemp- orary culture, addressing and investigating concerns fueled by today's omni- ABSTRACT present commodity and life-style culture, and provoking thoughts about illu- sion and the crises of the real. In the 21 st century we interact with, acknowledge, accept or even prefer the surface over the essence of things, and real ex- perience becomes more diluted. INTRODUCTION The MASTER OF FINE ARTS research documentation and studio work is a continuation and further exploration of the notion of doubledeath that was first introduced as an idea in my MASTER OF ARTS project in 2004. The concept of doubledeath builds upon the classic texts of Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida in which he compares a photograph - the „that has been" - with flat death, and addresses the notion of presence and absence in photo- graphyJ In the previous body of work doubledeath is approached in a quite simplistic and literal way: as an irreversible moment in which to catch an interpretation of reality. It is also seen as an attempt to freeze, to reproduce, to end and to similarly turn into a different pre- sent. By re-photographing a photograph, the death, as Barthes claims, happens twice. This is where the notion of double- death occurs. (Fig. A) Doubledeath - Sydneygirl, 200^ However, the original intent of the MASTER OF FINE ARTS project was to give doubledeath a new visual definition as both a metaphor and an ironic statement for the world we live in. We live in a world that is in constant flux, where the rapid mode of technological developments makes certain historical forms of appearance fade. Similarly, the experience of reality represented in many different ways through media has caused the real to disappear and changed its very meaning. „Reality today appears either distorted or hyper- real (hyperreal, a real without origin or reality, as Baudrillard defines it) far re- moved or constructed." Peter Weibel goes further and speaks of our world as R. Barthes, Camera Lucida, Hill and Wang, New York, 1981. a non-place, a place of absence and alienation. He describes a Utopia in which industrial and post-industrial society's experience of reality has been transfomried by new interfaces like machines and media, implicating photography as a major component which participates in and supports this development, ^ How this world in its ever-changing, modernizing mode - a world of accelerated environment, distractive fantasy and permanent instability - is in- volved in my art making process, will be further explained in the following chapters. 2 F. Pötzer, S. Iglhaut, H. v. Amelunxen, A. Cassel, N. G. Schneider, K. Cottingham, Photography after Photography, G+B Arts, Munich, 1996 12 THE PHOTOGRAPHIC OBJECT THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DEATH and THE NOTION OF DOUBLEDEATH The whole idea of doubledeath evolved from a fascination with the media-specific characteristics of photography. By media-specific characteristics I mean a photograph's unique approach to temporality, its mimetic capacity and its relation to society. To be more specific, the focus is on the photograph as a two-dimensional object with its ability to abstract and to catch an ir- reversible moment in time. This is combined with its close-to-life-like appear- ance and its impact on society. After a photograph has been taken, all that is left is only a simulation of what was before. Simulation here is defined as a form of visual representation of something. This special moment in time in- corporates both death and a new beginning. For Barthes the photograph - as a material object - is the present trace of an absent original. What „has once been there", in front of the lens has lost its third dimension, has entered into „flat death".^ Furthermore, Barthes describes this point of inactuality as a strange stasis, the stasis of an arrest. He goes further by claiming the photograph as a precursor that informs us about our actual death in some unknown future. "^(Rg. 2) „He is dead and he is going to die..." ® Rg. 2 Alexander Gardner, Portrait of Lewis Payne, 1865 3 R. Barthes, Camera Lucida, Hill and Way, New York, 1981, p. 92. " R. Barthes, Camera Lucida, Hill and Way, New York, 1981, p. 95. 13 ® R. Barthes, Camera Lucida, Hill and Way, New York, 1981, p. 95. THE PHOTOGRAPHIC OBJECT THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DEATH and THE NOTION OF DOUBLEDEATH While Barthes is driven by an ontological desire to learn what photo- graphy is in itself, Walter Benjamin explores the meaning of the photographic death related to history. As Eduardo Cadava describes it for Benjamin: „history happens when something becomes present in passing away, when some- thing lives in its death. Living means leaving traces".® Apart from Barthes and Benjamin there are countless others concerned with the notion of death re- lated to photography. André Bazin and Susan Sontag, both media-related theorists, wrote extensively on photographic philosophy. They determined the notions of death-mask and claimed photography a stencil of reality. Pierre Mac Orlan for example, mentions in the 1930 edition of Atget photo- graphe de Paris, „the power of photography that consists in creating sudden death".