A Shock to the System

In Camera Diptychs on 4"x5" Negatives.

By Olivia Wall

A Shock to The System

In A Shock to the System the use of seemingly prosaic objects, circumstances, and situations as subject matter allow for an exploration of the cultural universal propensity to see something vague as signifcant, connect A to B, and find patterns in the random. I use formalism and sequencing as a device to shift the viewer’s perception of seemingly unrelated subjects. The formal elements provide a constant among the visual variables. Providing the viewer with multiple fragments of similar banality assigns importance, and unwittingly, we decide there must be something crucial and essential involved within the fictional narrative unfolding. Co-occurrence of visual stimuli creates relationships where none exist; this false positive cognitive error creates punctum using studium.