“Photography is simultaneously an investigation of reality and of the means of investigating that reality”
— Lyle Rexler from The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography
Push/Pull: Activating Media" explores the relationship between people and media through the use of abstract photography and video.
In his book, Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan defines the relationship between different media as either Push or Pull. McLuhan describes “Push” media as passive and requiring a small degree of sustained concentration to understand, such as television. He defines “Pull” media as those that draw the viewer in and requires a higher degree of sustained concentration to understand, such as abstract art. Abstract art has a long history of using the visual vocabulary that the viewer already understands. This is evident in the work of abstract painters Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky. Mondrian painted horizontal and vertical lines in such pieces as Composition In Yellow, Blue, and Red that echoed the growing cities in the 1920’s. Kandinsky’s "Composition X" involved the use of basic geometric shapes such as curved lines, circles and triangles during the 1940’s, which reflected his own architectural background.
This work is about creating a visual vocabulary that can be understood today through digital cameras, television, and video by the use of saturated colors, movement, passage of time, and pixels.