“Fauxssilles” for the future: cyanotype expressions on plastic waste
Author
Önen, Naz
Advisor
Treske, Andreas
Date
2018-06Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
This thesis focuses on the increasing plastic waste problem in the marine
environment and it tries to create an artistic reflection with the Cyanotype
photographic technique in order to create a body of work that highlights the
relationship between found Plastic Objects and Cyanotype Photographs. The
project conceptualizes the plastics as the fossils of the future since the material
is highly durable and much resistant than the organic components in the marine
environment. The conceptualization of these “fauxssilles” sounds like fossils,
focuses on the plastics and photographic series being “faux”; meaning “fake” and
“false”. The Cyanotype as one of the earliest photographic techniques has been
used for this series with a reference to the first photographic book by Anna
Atkins, and this alternative photographic process has been selected as the Cyan
- Prussian blue of Cyanotype technique has a reference to the marine
environment and the chemistry (plasticity) of cyanotype prints are as durable
as the content of the images of the plastics. The research focuses on the plastic
waste problem and examines key artworks, in addition to the research on the
theoretical framework in photography theory, focusing on permanence,
memory and the evidence aspects of photography. The experimentation process
uses photograms and the final implementation is a series of 14 photographs.
The photographed objects were selected according to the Ocean Conservancy
2017 report, following the top 10 found item on ocean shores.