Digital Discord

For this project, I set out to examine the interface between the self and the "environment," as discussed by McLuhan on pages 68 and 69. For me, the idea of the human environment immediately brought to mind the build environment. To best express this idea, I looked for pieces of human infrastructure that I could project my self, my shadow, onto. But a mere shadow image wouldn't say quite what I wanted it to say. I took inspiration from the McLuhan passage: "The main obstacle to a clear understanding of the effects of the new media is our deeply embedded habit of regarding all phenomena from a fixed point of view." (McLuhan, 68). To attempt to fix multiple points of view in a single image, I used the technique of long exposure (~2.5-8 seconds) and moved my camera and body slowly along (usually) a single axis. My shadow would remain a seemingly fixed object, while the environment around it appeared in flux, viewed from many different angles at once. Flickr: https:...

Hello all! My name is Sebastian Evans. I am a studio art major, and a senior here at Lawrence. My major was actually not decided until the latter half of last year, stemming from my lack of inspiration in my previous field of study (linguistics), and a newfound love of photography. I remember always being fascinated with the act of "recording" as a child. I would make use of cassette tape recorders, DV tape recorders, and digital cameras to obsessively document the mundanities of everyday life. I remember specifically that the idea of freezing a visual moment in time was magical to me. In my early teen years, I participated in an "urban photography" camp that, while inspiring, would mark the last of my photographic exploits for some time.  Through most of my high school years, distracted by schoolwork and my burgeoning adulthood, I did not make much exploration of the visual arts. It was not until I took a film photography course here at Lawrence that my dormant pas...