I am conscious I have not been posting as many blogs as normal but I am continuing to write the First Draft of my Thesis. I am making good progress and have now written 35,731 words. I have one substantive chapter still to do which is the Contemporary Practice piece and then the Conclusion. As I have said before, this is my first stab at getting the words down on paper and I have to say I am pleased that I have now written over 35,000 almost entirely out of my head. Once I have a first draft I will starting identifying the gaps, areas for further research and where I wish to develop my practice.
In the meantime, I also submitted an Abstract for a Postgraduate Symposium at the University of Dundee on 13 May and am pleased to say it has been accepted, so I will be working on a longer Abstract and the paper itself alongside my thesis writing. Please see below the short Abstract and Brief Biographical Note submitted.
Dwelling in Extremis
Alison Price, Year 2 PhD student, DJCAD Paradox, Being and Dwelling – Abstract
This paper reflects an observation that only by dwelling in practice can the paradox inherent in the photographer’s and their subject’s Being be resolved. Paradox lies at the heart of the scientific understanding of physical reality. As we penetrate any object, paradox is progressively realised, even though the resolution of that paradox is a Real Quality within the summation of its parts. However, evidence now suggests that the superposition of incompatible states also exists, within conscious and non-conscious cognition, language and, indeed, many of the philosophical debates that have resisted resolution over the last three thousand years. As with the cat in the box, the resolution of paradox cannot be resolved through argument and debate. Through debate we implicitly privilege the power of the conscious side of the cognitive paradox, but analysis and reason, by their nature, cannot resolve a paradox. Paradox, by definition, defeats the Laws of Thought and in particular, the law of excluded middle. As a photographer, I resolve the paradox by the equivalent of opening the box. The multiple future realities superposed in photographic intentionality are only resolved by entering the dwelling of the present, and then by pressing the shutter. It is only through this act that what is revealed is what is, as opposed to what we may want it to be. Whoever dares to dwell in extremis, dares to break the paradox.
Biographical Note
Alison Price is a photographer based on the Isle of Skye and a second year PhD student researching The Ontology of the Photographic Moment – An Exploration of the Implications of Speculative Realism for Photographic Practice. Alison is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, has an MA in Photography with Distinction and is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society. Before joining the University of Dundee, Alison had a successful career in university management, latterly at the University of Bath. She is a qualified management coach and continues to work on consultancy assignments in the university sector.