01  Approach

Visual Studies

Key for a visual study is the wide range of visual exploration. The execution of different sets allows to come up with variations that can easily lead to a collection of thousands of images. But not only the image-production itself is important. A visual study lives from the approach that information, whether image or text is considered as a visual piece that becomes an actor (following here the understanding of Bruno Latours Actor-Network-Theory).

I prefer to gather artefacts and treat them as a scientific collection, which means the artefacts can be tagged and archived. Different groupings of the single pieces allow a dynamic observation that leads to an analysis and a selection of material to be examined in further steps.

A common work tool is, for example, a huge pinboard or wall to stick and organise material (in the manner of Aby Warburgs Mnemosyne). Process books and final documentation of experiments is, therefore, a good way to ensure the traceability of the conducted study.

Project: Looking into Fog
By: Stephanie Müller
Year: 2019

In this visual study, it was discussed how the translation of the natural phenomenon of the fog into a design element changes the perception of an image. As soon as fog appears in visuals, the scene becomes either a landscape or an abstract space. How one can physically and in an empathetic way relate with such a visual and its spatial depth is crucial of how the image is perceived and how that makes one feel.

The study experimented with the deconstruction of a figure in a fog-like environment. For example, the image was split into sections that cut the wide view of a traditional landscape panorama. Furthermore, abstract spaces were built which were based on parameters that resemble fog characteristics.

The aim was to extend the atmospheric description of a fog scene through abstract images and to discuss its either brutal or sublime perception. A graphic translation of condensed fog in a vacuum-like spatial structure makes it difficult to relate bodily with the depicted environment, which led to a rather brutal connotation in this context.