Project 1: Possibilities in Photomontage

Project one is a photomontage responding to the “politics of representation, notions of authorship, and how technology influences the old cut and paste method”. My Photoshop montage explores concepts like disjointed images, freedom of imagination, and the questioning of modes of thought and categorization. In my project I juxtapose art and science and art and technology, and show how they can work together. The “…encounter of two incompatible realities.” Technology and art are disparate fields. In my montage, I mash together images of art and science, and highlight the extreme juxtaposition.

Notions of authorship – I show images in a new context, in a unique way, therefore it is my work. I use these images in a way that they were not intended for. I question ownership through the use of technological images. How can someone own a scientific image? If so, to whom do they belong? The person whose body is being investigated or the scientist doing the investigation?

Technology and how it changes the art of photomontage – many, many more images are available to us now through the Internet. I used images in my project that are only available to us today because of technology and science (medical imaging). Technology allows us to see inside an alive human being, something we could not do before without cutting into flesh (the elimination of the physical act of cutting, splicing, ripping in surgery runs parallel to the elimination of the physical act in making a collage. I used Photoshop for this project and such effects as hue/saturation changes and pixilation. I got most of my images from Google and Ghetty Images.