Anteckningar om Spår. Fotografi – Bevis – Bild

Abstract

Anteckningar om Spår (Notes on Traces) is a self-critical and self-reflective practice-based PhD project. It endeavours to make visible how artistic practice can create its content and context in relation to experience, reinterpretation and further progression. The project is an inquiry into photography’s capacity to prove evidence. It is structured around photographic representation and written text. The dissertation consists of four photographic works together with an introduction, a list of contents, and a main text presented as an essay with numbered passages. The research effort is guided by a broad, selective inquiry. Contextualisation and conceptualisation have been identified through a process of bricolage, whereby creative use has been made of different discourses such as photography, film, art, philosophy, psychology, education, law, criminalistics, literature and cognitive science. Artistic strategies and practices that use forensic aesthetics are also discussed. The method has the character of tracing a trail that leads the project forward. This creates a dialogue between the content and the form of the dissertation. Trace together with condensation and pattern are presented as productive concepts; these concepts, which in some respects have their roots in photography, not only provide others with the leads to understand a photograph as evidential proof but are also characterised by a suggestive quality, which is a recurring feature in the photographic projects. The study contributes to overcoming the differences in the ways theoretical and practical knowledge are produced.