Can Randomness be a Theme?

There are many arguments against why randomness cannot be considered to be a theme, such as the question of whether anything can, in fact, in random in the first place. Every decision we make seems to be the result of some sort of thought process, so can anything we do be called 'random'? The work of Jackson Pollack is a perfect example of random art, as he would drop paint onto canvas and see what results could be produced without any apparent thought process.

First attempts of Double Exposure

This is one of my first double exposure pieces. I randomly chose 2 strips of negatives from a selection of black and white film and placed them over the top of each other. I then placed the negatives into the enlarger and the above image is one result. I purposely did not choose which negatives to layer, as I wanted to leave 'randomness' as a theme, so there are some photographs that include the edge of the negatives and some scratches.

Miroslav Tichy

Miroslav Tichy is a Czech photographer who believed that photography was all about making mistakes and embracing the errors made. He built his own camera, pictured above, and believed that:

"Photography is painting with light! The blurs, the spots, those are errors!
But the errors are part of it, they give it poetry and turn it into painting.
And for that you need as bad a camera as possible!
If you want to be famous, you have to do whatever you're doing
worse than anyone else in the whole world."

(http://kottke.org/08/08/photographer-miroslav-tichy)

Together with Polke, Tichy has given me the inspiration to create work that appreciates the errors of human nature and that not everything has to be perfect to be considered great art.

Making mistakes

What interests me most about this photograph is that it is abstract, with different layers on top of each other. You can see the edge of the negatives, which goes with Polke's method of making 'mistakes'.

Sigmar Polke - using shape to create space

I like this photograph because Polke uses double exposure together with different shapes to create a different sense of space. Through the circular cut out shapes we can see another image, though not entirely visable, I feel this creates a sense of another space and time parallel to the background image.

Sigmar Polke

This is one of Polke's photographs that has most influenced me. The use of double exposure to create a layered effect has made the piece more abstract and allows the audience to be more engaged with the work. I like the idea of abstract, and like the idea that random photographs can be layered together to create something interesting to look at.

Experiment module

For my MEDI 259 Experiment module, I have come across a book of photographs by the Polish artist, Sigmar Polke. He seems to put himself and his work into situations where accidents and mistakes are more likely to be made, and I think this just goes to show that imperfections are what makes the world go round and they should be celebrated. This book 'Photoworks: When Pictures Vanish' includes double exposure photographs, which I am going to base my project on.