Morgan Spaulding / fall 2018 HAA 92R Design Speculations seminar
All forms of visual representation fall along a spectrum of subjectivity and objectivity. The more mechanical the system of production, the more faithful a representation is taken to be. During the Renaissance, linear perspective was believed to be the epitome of realism. Perspective enabled art to represent architectural space for the first time and allowed objects to exist within this two-dimensional optical ‘space.’ The system was precise and mechanical in a way that gave it validity. Thus, perspectival images were not only realistic, but objectively so.
With the invention of photography, there emerged another means of objective representation. Photography was also a supposedly mechanical medium, with equal- if not greater- claims to objectivity. Thus, it unseated linear perspective, calling the very notion of reality into question.
If photography and linear perspective both portray the real, there should be consistency between them. In many instances, however, photography does not confirm perspectival expectations. Rather, it reveals a new way of seeing that world. These instances of discrepancy are analyzed through diptychs that visualize perspective as a systems and counter-systems. Neither photography nor linear perspective alone can encompass all of visual experience. Therefore, this project treats photography and linear perspective as reciprocal systems of representation in order to question the supposed objectivity of each.
