The choice of photographing scientific instruments and the practice of scientific inquiry—particularly those aspects of both that are difficult to explain with images—is a critical and reflexive choice. I view the instruments and practices of science, along with the roles that they play within society and culture, as sharing many inherent qualities with the artist's camera and artistic practice more broadly. For example, both use instruments in the recording of worldly phenomenon, both must translate inscriptions into symbolic forms of knowledge, both seek to grow our understanding of the world around us, and both are incredibly influential within a contemporary social landscape. There are further links, however, as the camera is also a by-product of science and a tool used necessarily by science since its invention. Thus, investigating the camera via artistic practice and theory, with the subject of scientific laboratories and instruments, can entice thoughtful reflection upon how reliant we are on the functions of the camera, how intermingled it is within the culture of knowledge production, and the relationships that can be constructed if the two are analyzed in tandem. Experimentation into how such an instrument can be used creatively to develop, interpret, and consider knowledge production and dissemination more deeply, can be considered a potent potential of exploratory documentary photography broadly, and this project more specifically.
Excerpt from "Interfaces of Nearness:
Documentary Photography and Technological Representation,"
Ph.D Thesis Dissertation.