What a title! I was just reading an article, “‘Force yourself to see more flatly’: A photographic investigation of the infra-ordinary” by Joanne Lee in Forsdick, C., Leak, A.N. and Phillips, R. (2019) Georges Perec’s geographies : material, performative and textual spaces. 1st edn. London: UCL Press.
Lee consciously takes Perec’s suggestion ‘to see more flatly’ as a photographer, with her constraints being the use of B&W film on surfaces seen on her daily walk to the tram stop, closely observing and recording (in writing and on film) the banal objects on the way. Perec also says, “Carry on until the scene becomes improbable, until you have the impression, for the briefest of moments, that you are in a strange town,or better still. until you no longer understand what is happening, until the whole place becomes strange, and you no longer even know that this is what is called a town, a street, buildings, pavement. ” (Lee,2019, p230). Also,”For him, the answer was in a sort of writing that could be described as defamiliarisation through the practice of listing.” (Lee,2019, p230).
Compositing and defamiliarisation
In my work I have made or used photos and/or scans of the familiar, everyday objects in my theme and used compositing and/or collaging to distance, subvert or render them unfamiliar in such a way that the viewer is compelled to question what they are. Is this my form of defamiliarisation? Am I just trying to justify the fun I’m having my methods?
Georges Perec’s geographies : material, performative and textual spaces
C. Forsdick, A. N. Leak and R. Phillips
Publisher: UCL Press 2019 1st edn.
Lee, J. (2019) ‘‘Force yourself to see more flatly’: A photographic investigation of the
infra-ordinary’, in Forsdick, C., Leak, A. and Phillips, R., (ed.) Georges Perec’s Geographies : Material, Performative and Textual Spaces. London: UCL Press, pp. 218-235.
