36 frames: A self portrait

honors thesisCollege of Fine ArtsArt & Art HistoryJoseph MarottaThere is no doubt that we live in a highly mediated culture, more and more images are readily available to us. We view them instantaneously as events are unfolding on our computers, tablets, cellphones, as well as in newspapers and on television. We are constantly barraged and influenced by images from advertisements to news sources; and from television to hollywood films. Photography, and the photographic image, has been the most important tool through which we convey narratives of commercial and cultural significance. We have given meaning to the world around us through the lenses of our cameras. We have created a visual culture that has a great impact on how we view ourselves and the conventions through which we describe our own personal narratives. The objective of my new photographic series, 36 Frames, is to explore the images that have become iconic over my lifetime. In researching for source material starting from 1976 to 2012, the scope of the project, I started to react to the images in an unexpected way. On one hand, the images were full of emotion, whether humorous, sad, disturbing or joyful, depending on what the pictures were depicting. On the other hand, there was a flattening that occurred as the pictures were dislocated in time and physical space, a cycle of images culled from the depths of the Google image archive. The pictures were unmoored from their original context and meaning and my experience of viewing them was of a passive disassociation. I reacted to this feeling by creating an alter ego, Jean Meursault, a time traveling tourist who casually experiences past mediated events by popping into frame with an uncanny sense of timing. Meursault's journey is documented in photographic images and travel diary entries that heighten a feeling of disconnection and alienation. To keep 36 Frames: A Self Portrait synonymous with an experience of history through mediation, the series is being presented as a gallery show, a self published book, magazine, and downloadable e-book, as well as a social media experiment in which Jean Mearsualt has a travel blog, Facebook page and Instagram account in order to mirror the devices and ways in which we experience the media today