The
Crisis
of the
Artificial:
Why Does
Everything
Look the
Same?
( VOLUME I )
Mark Roxburgh
THE CRISIS OF THE ARTIFICIAL :
WHY DOES EVERYTHING LOOK THE SAME ?
A thesis submitted by
Mark Roxburgh
for the
Doctor of Philosophy - Environmental Design
July 2013
University of Canberra
i
The Abstract
In this thesis I will argue that the realist photograph conditions us to see, experience, and
imagine the world in a narrow realist manner. I will contend that the questions we ask through
realist photo-observation frame the world as a concrete reality. I will propose a framing theory
for the use of photo-observation in design that encompasses abstraction and artifice to counter
this by imagining reality as malleable. I will contend that my research presents another way
to understand the nature of the questions one can ask through a photograph. This leads to a
further question, although not restricted to photography, about the reality we are designing in
the post-industrial age and that is ‘why does everything look the same?’
I present the case that ethnography has a long history of using photo-observation as a
method of inquiry and there exists an extensive body of literature that discusses how to do
it. More significantly much of this literature interrogates the epistemological and ontological
dimensions of doing it. Regardless of the differing epistemological and ontological views that
exist in the ethnographic research community, each view has a well-developed theoretical
framework for using photo-observation. And though the ethnographic literature theorises the
that design, by comparison, is fundamentally concerned with ‘what-might-be’ and that in spite
of it being a transformative practice that shapes the world through images and objects its use
of photo-observation conforms to the realist pattern.
Through my research I present the case that irrespective of these differences the use of
photo-observation in both fields presupposes that photography can be used to ask questions.
Inevitably these questions attend to reality - and what we may ask of it - but not in the
commonplace sense of a reality the photograph apparently shows, the canonised and
naturalised regime of pictorial realism that derives from its indexical relationship to its
subject. The more fundamental questions pertain to the reality that we inevitably transform
through the interplay of the imaginary and the images of photography via our embodied
perception of the world. This is the subject of design, and though some critical theorists
have touched it upon, it has not been theorised through design practice. With reference to
several case studies of my own abstract photographic practice I present a new theory and new
point of view for design to ask questions using photo-observational research and escape the
banality of the real.
relationship between photography, the production of knowledge, and the problematic nature
of notions of reality and truth, photo-realism is still the modus operandi of ethnographers.
By contrast design has relatively recently assumed the ethnographic turn and many research
methods from ethnography, photo-observation included, are used by design practitioners and
researchers in their inquiry. Where there is some literature that discusses how to do photoobservation for design there is a paucity of material that deals in any substantive way with
the epistemological and ontological implications of doing so. Photo-realism is also the modus
operandi of design researchers using photo-observation but it is used without any thought
given to these implications or the epistemological and ontological differences that exist
between ethnography and design. I will contend that ethnography is essentially concerned
with telling us ‘what-is’. It is in the main a narrative practice and the realist photograph, as
data, is an object of interrogation, analysis, and interpretation to be written about. I will argue
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Inevitably my thanks to and akcnowledgement of Professor Craig Bremner, my supervisor,
take precedence. Craig probably won’t mind me saying he didn’t teach me anything because
he doesn’t really believe in teaching. Rather he guided me, via his considered questions and
concise reflections, through my learning. Much of this learning is reflected in these pages,
and as much again has no place in a PhD thesis but I will carry through life. His friendship,
questions, humour, and sage advice have been central to my development as a scholar and my
growth as a person.
Professor Ranulph Glanville is due a big vote of thanks also. Ranulph was an advisor in
the early stages of this research and the numerous conversations I had with him, and the
many pragmatic questions he asked me, were crucial in shaping my direction and focus. His
ongoing interest in my research, beyond that more formal role, and his friendship over the
years have been invaluable.
I would also like to thank my colleagues and friends Ms Jacqueline Gothe, Dr Ian Gwilt, Dr
Zoe Sadokierski, and Dr Kate Sweetapple for the fun times and enlightened conversations all
of which shaped my thinking - for better or worse. I miss you all.
To Ms Jenny Wilson who started my love of design practice and scholarship all those years
ago in Balmain - a big thanks also. She truly is the unacknowledged Godmother of design
education in this country.
To my children Isabella, Gabriel, and Conor, and their mother Francine - many thanks for
putting up with my self absorbtion in those early years of my studies.
Finally to my dear wife Lisa, a special thanks for putting up with my single minded obsession
with my research - especially in the final six months - and accepting my absence with grace and
good humour.
This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my mother Judith. Given my teacher’s comments on
all of my school reports (each of which she diligently kept) and my previous aptitude for study
I think she would have been amused and surpised I got this far.
iv
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CONTENTS
VOLUME I
Title Page
The Abstract Acknowledgements
Contents
Chapter 4 Real Abstract Photography
i
ii
v
vi
Chapter 1 Introduction: Looking at What
A Pracrice in Reality
2
Framework? What Framework? 11
Would the Real Design Please Stand Up13
The Reality of the Here-and-Now 15
The Reality of Reality
17
The Experience of the Here-and-Now
20
Telling Us What We Can See
22
Picturing What We Can’t See
24
The Questions That I’m Asking
25
Seeing What We Feel
26
Recounting What I Believe
26
Stating What I Will Argue
28
Chapter 2 Looking Really Artificial
The Really Abstract Why Bother Looking? Seeing the Real Interpreting the Real
Seeing the Real as Abstract
Seeing the Abstract as Real
Seeing the Visible as Real
Seeing the Visible as Abstract
Seeing the Artificial as Image
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33
34
42
48
53
58
74
82
Chapter 3 Real Photography
The Real Abstract, Really
Seeing Photographic Reality
Exposing Photographic Reality
Reading Photographic Reality
Seeing Photography Artfully The Cause of Photographic Indexicality The Experience of Photographic Indexicality Finding Existential Indexicality
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The Abstract Abstract The Artifice of Abstraction
Impressions of Abstraction
Real Abstraction
Modern Abstraction
Pure Abstraction
Artificial Abstraction
Phenomenal Abstraction
Experience + Understanding = Space
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216
Chapter 5 Experiencing Abstraction An Abstract in Theory The Image of the Artificial The Banality of Reality amd the Reality of Banality The Crisis of the Artificial The Condition of the Artificial
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261
Chapter 6 Conclusion: Shaping Abstraction An Abstract in Experience Theorising Practice The Inevitability Of The Artificial
The Aesthetics of Research and the Design Imperative The Re-Presentation of the Image
Bibliography
VOLUME II
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
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VOLUME I:
THESIS
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“I don’t
know
where the
artificial
stops and
the real
starts.”
Andy Warhol
1