The photographic representation of lightudand space as medium and metaphor

摘要

This project has investigated the photographic representation of lightudand space, as medium and metaphor.udCognitive and emotional phenomena are normally regarded as relatedudto, or occurring within the mind. But what is the mind? Whenever weudsay "within" the mind, we give our mental faculties a space or place ofudexistence, even though we cannot "picture" this site. In other wordsudwe describe the mind in terms of metaphorical associations that areudconnected to a contained space. Architecture is a much usedudmetaphor for the mind, but the mind may also be analogicallyudsuggestive of architecture, hence the photographic images created inudthis research project represent a "non-specific" site that may inciteudinterpretations related to the duality and/or multiplicity of theudmetaphoric exchange.udThe photographic work produced throughout this research representsudan investigation into manifestations of light as the ethereal counterpartudof thoughts, objects and emotions. Placing the camera in a centraludposition before the constructed light receptacle, I have created audseries of images that are associated with the symbolic equivalent ofudconsciousness; the self as centred. Light has been manipulated inudsuch a way as to represent the analogous "spirit" of the self.udRepeatedly photographing the same space, from a central position,udlight is recorded as both the subject within the boundaries of theudconstructed space, and the subject that appears to extend outward,udblurring or dissolving the boundaries of representation. Hence theudproject, rather than replicating reality, or representing a convincingudillusion of reality, the project has explored ways of representing audmediation between the physical and the metaphysical- between innerudand outer realities.