http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5085/5312124987_54df5afee7_z.jpg
This image is derived from a photo made by my friend Myriam
Belzille-Maguire. It was shot at a party.
The image you see here is a scan of a print exhibited at the gallery
L'Escale in Levallois, Paris, France, as a part of Photo-Levallois
20107.
The orginal photo was taken in low ambient light with a flash. This
resulted in red-eye in every pair of eyes you can see in the image. If
you look closely, you can see the pinholes I made at the centers of
these red-eyes.
The 18th century saw the rise of the peep-show or the rarekiek: these
were boxes with images that were "able to create the depth illusion
through viewing architectural & topographical engravings with linear
perspective via a large bi-convex lens using our two eyes"4.
Common subjects included pornography, exotic objects and beings,
scenes from classical works, famous landmarks, and often, disolving
transformations between two views of the same vista1 6.
Often, the pictures within peep-show boxes and rarekiek were pierced
with pinholes at the appropriate locations : "windows, street lights,
moon & stars, artificial fire work..., etc. and ameliorated with
coloured transparant paper for enchanting effects."6
The reason I pierced my red-eyes is an inverted cousin of the
peep-show: light being flashed onto the subjects, full-frontal, the
banisher of darkness. A perverted complement of the sanduk al-ajayib
or "wonder-box", meant to reduce all traces of exoticness, meant
merely to make clear the obscured.
I was shown this photo by a friend of mine on the Internet. It showed
up on one of Myriam's many feeds. In colour the red-eyes are quite
striking. I saved the image and made a laptopogram with it. The
relationship with the peep-show was multiplied further: a luminous
screen with these red-eyes, and me behind the paper, waiting for the
right moment.
This image started its life as a photo to be put on a metaphoric wall.
It did indeed end up on a wall, of a gallery, many months later. In
between birth and display, it passed through a peep-show.
References
1. Mair, Victor H. Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture
Recitation and its Indian Genesis. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 1988.
2. Mandayam, Aditya. cixa: Ephemerides: (sic{sic[sic]}). 2010.12.31.
NetBehaviour.
http://www.netbehaviour.org/pipermail/netbehaviour/20101231/018881.html
(accessed 2010.12.31).
3. Mandayam, Aditya. cixa: Ephemerides: Ajeeb-o-Gareeb. 2011.01.01.
NetBehaviour. (accessed 2011.01.01).
4. Thomas Weynants, "From the Rarekiek, 17th. & 18th. Century optical
entertainment, to the birth of Television".
http://www.visual-media.eu/vue-optique.html (accessed 2011.01.01).
5. Adventures in Cybersound: The Peep Show and Toy Theatre.
http://www.acmi.net.au/AIC/PEEP_SHOW.html (accessed 2011.01.01).
6. Thomas' Optical Raree Show "Oh. You shall see vat you shall see"
Rare views from the new world.
http://www.visual-media.eu/vue-optique.html (accessed 2011.01.01).
7. Mandayam, Aditya. The Tangible Ephemerides of the Ha-Ha Preterite.
2010.11.23. Photo-Levallois.
http://www.photo-levallois.org/edition-2010/accueil.html (accessed
2010.12.30).
8. Mandayam, Aditya. Laptopogram.
http://cixa.org/works/laptopogram.php (accessed 2010.12.30).
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