AnnieLaurie Erickson and Everett Lawson
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
AnnieLaurie Erickson and Everett Lawson.
Work from A Slip of Memory.
My first thoughts about this work were “badass”. A Slip of Memory is a phenomonal integration of science, optics, and art which explores how the eye functions and how it affects our perception (something I am working on from a vastly different perspective).
“Colors, shapes, and forms are collected on the inner surface of the eye before they can be directed by memory and one can ‘see’. This action is often hidden from view although physically present. This project uncovers latent images remaining on the retina often unperceived by the conscious. Retinal staining puzzles the eye; the strongest impression is filtered from the rest leaving subdued forms and colors to play out in inversions, fading and lessoning into darkness before finally digressing into the unconscious.”
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Process information – “An early example of a camera we created to photograph retinal decay can be seen on the right. In order to do this we mapped our retinas and used the information to make artificial retinal membranes from hydro-polymer material imbedded with particles of red, white, and aqua strontium aluminate. These particles store and convert the visible and ultra-violet spectrum into low transmissions of electrical output and resonate release of light. The lenses focus images onto the phosphorus membrane creating the corresponding crystal particles of strontium to activate and retain the optical information, which in turn, inverts and decays before it is exposed onto film.
From compressed and circulated chlorodifluoro-methane gas to electro magnetic cowling, our early cameras were constructed from found materials salvaged from disgarded consumer waste such as broken televisions, refriderators, and glass which was ground into lenses. This camera is both digital and manual; It interfaces with a computer and has a modified homemade lenticular photosensitive cell. We now have a number of retinal imaging cameras, both film and digital, each unique in construction. The lenses are hand ground and specifically de-signed to address the defects of our own eyes, conceptualizing the different modes of our
vision through their imperfections.” – Annie Laurie Erickson and Everett Lawson
via Invisible City