PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP Arts 651 Fall 2010
Ms. Robbins describes her work as installations of “present reality vs. past memory” using images, sounds, and experiences.
A strong influence to her work is the relationship lost of her mother, who died in a car accident. Stephanie was only 8 years old at the time, and so only knows her mother through images and stories told. This apparently became an inspiration for her works.
She expresses that family had influence on her identity, and that her idea of “home” became a documentation of events and people. She was influenced by Alan Caparo (Kaprow?), a 50s and 60s photographer of art and life together.
Her installations show different rooms of a home, simultaneously.
She explains that she regards her work as “phototherapy”—art and photography to affect feelings. The idea is to elicit feelings from different people, and thus different reactions to an image based on their own life experiences.
She shows other artists’ examples such as object and copy as art—a book with her story and others’ in one book. She also shows a video of what is referred to as “audio walks” which uses space, sound, music, and a walking soundtrack, though I wasn’t sure if she was speaking of her own work as well. The soundtracks are like a movie—telling a story while walking with all the sounds heard around the person walking (e.g., footsteps, traffic, people’s voices passing by). I liked this idea, but don’t know when it was done, and had the recollection that I had seen this idea used by other artists as well, thus losing some integrity.
During Ms. Robbins’ undergrad work, she thought more about narrative—using color to express emotion shown on face in each image (e.g., red for anger; green for envy, etc.). This evolved into collage work—boxes of images, each with primary colors in each boxed and/or framed images. She believes in using many images to tell a story. She also used audio to go with images. Here again, I liked the idea, but upon hearing the audio I felt that the images of houses didn’t go with the audio of a phone conversation of a one-sided argument—only one person’s voice is heard. Although, the house image certainly has a strong association with family, good or bad.
Robin believes “we want to know about OTHER peoples’ lives.” In another installation she has one story per photograph, and each photo uses a barcode to activate the corresponding story/audio for a particular image.
One project leads to another. She finds old photos, then records opinions (from strangers) of what they think is happening in the photo that she shows them. I found this aspect of her work intriguing, as far as how people communicate, and interpret what they see, and why they believe what they do. The voices and how each person expressed their ideas really enhanced the interest level of this type of “show and tell”. She used these audios for different types of spaces, as an installation where a photo would be displayed with a headset at each different photo on a wall. Perspectives were recorded for each image. The intent is to trigger your own memories/thoughts of “what was” or “what could have been”. She then tried using images to trigger memories without sound; and used sound with no image. Examples were “family rooms” with sound and totally dark rooms with voices describing a family member.
One installation was a room with a table and two chairs, and a checkers game board display. She used old and new recordings of herself and her father talking while playing checkers. Participants are to sit at the installation/table and try to play while listening to the audio of the conversations between herself and her father. If sitting at her side of the table, her father’s voice is more prominent. If sitting at her father’s side, then her voice is more prominent. I thought this idea was clever, but perhaps too personal to engage those visiting the exhibit.
This led to an installation using different squares of floor covering to represent each room in a house. Audios at each square of flooring describe the appearance of the room, and what transpires there. I liked this idea a lot, as there are certainly different types of conversations that may take place in one room, but would never take place in another room of a house. And the different floor coverings are a great way to lead the action from one “room” to another by association of the material with the room—linoleum/kitchen, rug/living room, etc.
Ms. Robbins then used the same idea, only with images of two separate homes, and the front steps and/or walkway of each—demonstrating space both physical and cultural. What she refers to as her “POD” pieces equal a trilogy.
All her works are about memories and family, whether hers or that of a stranger. It was interesting to see the ways her work evolved, and the way in which her interactive installations could elicit an action, or reaction. Though her works may be about memories and family, her audiences’ reactions must be more about human nature. I believe interactive art has a tendency to do that.
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