Expanded Surrealist Photography as Social Commentary in an Unprecedented Reality
I am studying expanded photography with the influence of surrealism, the psychoanalysis of
dreams and the anthropocene in order to understand how and why these methodologies are
utilised to predict a future in unprecedented times. With the establishment of the surrealist
movement after the first World War (Kavky, 2018) as an outlet to comprehend atrocities, we are all
seeing, feeling and experiencing the same uncertainty that occurred approximately one hundred
years ago. It is crucial to undertake this philosophical endeavour through the visual medium as a
vehicle for social commentary since we are similarly experiencing waves of unpredictability. How
have our ideologies of reality been misconstrued and why should we hypothesise a dystopian or
utopian future? These questions are crucial to interrogate as we are presently coexisting in an
ambiguous, absurd and uncanny space and time.
Research objectives will seek to analyse discourses surrounding surrealism, examine dominant
trends in the psychoanalysis of dreams and evaluate theories encompassing the anthropocene.
These theories will accommodate the development of a creative body of work that will investigate
expanded photography through the still and moving image. The fluctuations of unsettling
depressions and liberating euphorias, solace and chaos, the uncanny and the sublime are all
interconnected in a mixed, preposterous reality of coexistence. All three discourses are intertwined
in ones understanding and experience of reality, which the visual medium powerfully manifests and
embodies (Cramerotti, 2011). “An expanded photography is now the set of conditions that
facilitates our awareness of such interconnected layers, a visual system that searches, finds and
acts out meaning as it constitutes it” (Cramerotti, 2011).
Expanded photography utilises the still and moving image through performance, installation and
audience interaction to provide new hybrid possibilities for the intervention and presentation of
imagery (Soutter, 2016). It is employed to critically reflect on contemporary social, political and
cultural life (2016), which is highly relevant for reflecting on the current becoming or perhaps
unbecoming of our world. Utopian or dystopian, it feels as if we are on the cusp of “the winding
spool of fate” (Morton, 2016). The ‘Ecognosis’, or the action of acknowledging the strange
turbulence unfolding is vital for the prediction of a possible future (Morton, 2016).
Surrealism knows no boundaries and has rendered empirical the many meaningful ways of
revealing secrets that lead to the future (Breton, 1934). Morton (2013) declares that reality is not
mechanical nor one dimensional and is in fact an illusion developed by the arbitrariness and
subjectivities of ones mind. As we are now on the verge of a new fate, one is compelled to look
inward at the ways the self and the world will unravel before them. Map makers such as Google
Maps are fixated with flattening the world into a two dimensional, focused, self contained and
masterable topography (Strom, 2011). The world is divergently complex and so incomprehensibly
multifaceted, one cannot contain existence with laws and categorisation. As Breton asserts, “We
are still living under the reign of logic”, which hinders the imagination and stultifies both science
and art (1914).
As the camera documents moments of our past, our mind’s eye similarly collects memories. The
unconscious mind utilises our memory in the form of the dream, which chiefly concerns itself with
the future (Freud, 1899). During this negotiation of time, we discover undisclosed meanings that
arise from symbolic interpretation (1899). We thus shape ourselves through universal visualisation
(Cramerotti, 2016). “Why should I not grant to dreams what I occasionally refuse reality that is, in
the case of certainty itself, which in its own time is not open to my repudiation?” (Freud, 1899).
Would the meaning in dreams thus serve as a moral compass in the ambivalent present to forecast
the obscure unknown?
The open future has become taboo because it is real and beyond conceptualisation, because of its
uncanniness (Morton, 2016). The recent covid pandemic has merely accelerated this, and we are
perpetually faced with unanswered questions. Yet, toxic positivism persists in maintaining a
disconnection between one and the world around them (Breton, 1914). We are affected on a micro
(individual) and macro (economic and environmental) scale. “The threads of fate have tied our
tongues, tongue twisters inclined towards nonsense” (Morton, 2016). The perpetual loop of
existence means we live in a universe of finitude and fragility, where our thoughts anticipate hints
in the horizon alongside other suspicions (Morton, Dark Ecology, 2016). For that reason, having an
ecological awareness of spatial bodies (imagined, virtual or physical) ignites the intangible source
of what enables vision (Morton, 2013). Logic persists in separating humans from nature (Gough,
2019).
This proposed research will greatly contribute to ideas surrounding expanded photography since it
will require the use of alternative technologies capable of constructing a surreality. I will additionally
speculate previous findings on surrealist notions such as automatism and spiritualism, the
psychoanalysis of dreams and the anthropocene as exemplified in this proposal. This scholarly
research will organically guide the artistic research. This includes exploring mediums that subvert
or disrupt expectations of perspectivism or ‘reality’, such as virtual and augmented reality, film,
scanography, medical imaging, thermal imaging, electromagnetic imaging, 3D design, et cetera.
“We belong to a multi layered dimension, to a mixed environment where the real and virtual partly
overlap. Bodies become augmented and encrypted” (Logaldo, 2016). These theories are largely
concentrated on what defies ‘reality’ with the abandonment of logic and justification for reason,
which is largely evident in the anthropocene and also in the pandemic.
These methodologies will ultimately permit a possible prediction of a future through the creation of
psychedelic worlds. More specifically, surreal environments will be created utilising elaborate sets
which will situate a diversity of models, cinematic lighting, props and objects. These otherworldly
scenes will be captured as still and moving images with panoramic techniques to intensify the
experience of materiality. These artistic productions will require the access to photography and
videography equipment, in addition to lighting and access to studio spaces on campus. Having a
private designated space that would allow the manufacturing of a set throughout the length of the
course would be advantageous. Access to VR headsets would be highly beneficial as the desired
presentation for the creative body of work would be to demonstrate the ‘world’ in an immersive and
potentially interactive environment. A green screen space would be beneficial as I will be required
to learn motion graphics. And finally, Any medium that permits the use of 3D scanning or likewise
would also strongly benefit this project.
This research will greatly contribute to the international photographic community as expanded
photography requires the collaboration of mediums, which is regarded alternative and to some
degree avant-garde. Artists such as Matthew Stone and Nick Knight have created powerful
surrealist art by employing an array of visual technologies. Since this project would act as social
commentary, this would further expedite its conceptual value. This expedition would have the
provocative and evocative ability to confront the viewer to question and contemplate their position
and morality in a time of utter unpredictability. Their imaginations would be ignited through vibrant
matter. I believe Kirsten Hudson would be highly beneficial and supportive of this project as she
has extensive knowledge parallel to the theories discussed above. “Everything that is revealed to
me about the future falls in a marvellous field which is nothing other than that of absolute
possibility” (Breton, 1934).
Bibliography
• Bauduin, T. M. 2015. “The Continuing Misfortune of Automatism in Early Surrealism.” Occult
Communications: On Instrumentation, Esotericism and Epistemology, 4 (1): 1 - 46.
• Breton, A. 1924. “Manifesto of Surrealism”. Oxford Blackwell Publishers, Pp 87 - 88.
• Colleni, M., Litts, K., Yan, L. 2020. “Exploring the Rhetorical Affordances of Augmented Reality
in the Context of the Anthropocene”. Research Gate. 1 - 20.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-42156-4_19.
• Cramerotti, A. 2011. “The Truth of Experience: Notes on Expanded Photography”. Digicult, (66).
http://digicult.it/digimag/issue-066/the-truth-of-experience-notes-of-expanded-photography/
• Erik Strom, T. 2011. “Space, Cyberspace, and the Interface”. MC Journal, 14 (3). doi.org/
10.5204/mcj.370.
• Freud, S. 1899. “The Interpretation of Dreams”. Research Gate, 1 - 677.
• Gough, N., Adsit - Morris, C. 2019. “Troubling the Anthropocene: Donna Haraway, Science
Fiction, and Arts of Un/Naming”. Sage Journals. doi.org/10.1177/1532708619883311.
• Morton, T. 2013. “Realistic Magic: Objects, Ontology and Causality (New Metaphysics)”. Open
Humanities Press. 1 - 227.
• Morton, T. 2016. Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. Columbia University Press. 1
- 208.
• Palmer Albers, K. 2016. “Expanded Photography: On Experiential Value and Digital Materiality”.
Derived from: http://circulationexchange.org/articles/digital_materiality.html.
• Soutter, L. 2016. “Expanded Photography: Persistence of the Photographic”. University of
Forward Thinking Westminster, 36 - 43.