This thesis is about emerging changes in photography and imaging related to digitization and how we might approach and understand them, particularly in terms of their impact upon how narratives are constructed. By focusing on the accounts of Queen’s University students this thesis examines the new ways of making, storing, distributing, and viewing images that have emerged with digital photography. Additionally, it looks at the cultural conventions of photography (particularly in relation to the documenting and organization of memory) that remain intact and have important implications for the reception of use of new digital technologies and how these are used to construct narratives. This thesis also looks at the digitization of photography in relation to broader theoretical debates about the dynamics and shifts associated with modernity, postmodernity and ‘global information culture’. Contemporary society is often seen as more capitalist, and in many ways, this is an era of increasing uncertainty, fluidity, and fragmentation. This thesis examines the affinity between the supposed ‘death of narrative’ in social theory and the ‘death of photography’ in terms of how they relate to the ordinary practices of amateur digital photographers. Specific focus is given to Bauman’s (2000) theory of ‘liquid modernity’ and how it offers a compelling account of contemporary society, specifically in terms of changes in narrative and how many individuals are faced with developing ‘biographical solutions’ to systemic problems of increasing uncertainty and fragmentation in the context of globalization and informationalization. In doing so, this thesis aims to address gaps in existing research on digitization that fails to capture the subtleties encountered in the everyday experiences of those engaged in taking the digital turn. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-09 11:01:58.955

We, as human beings, are unique creatures that have a need to form places. This obsession with claiming spaces and turning them into places starts at a young age. Maybe it is the first time a child goes to the park and claims a corner of the sand pit, because they think the sand is better on the right side. Perhaps it is a specific seat in the bleachers a person sits in at every home football game. Or maybe it is much more significant, like the spot on the path by the curved tree, next to the bike shed where you said good-bye to your family the first day of your freshman year in college.

Just like reading a good novel, photographs can allow us to see things differently. I have seen photographs that I will never forget, and I have seen photographs that have helped me to open my mind. In a world that has such a narrow perception of beauty, I have been able to find beauty in many unexpected forms. Beauty, I have found can be found in nature, in the simple in the unusual, in the grotesque, and in the aged. This realization of unconventional beauty, coupled with my curiosity, is what brought me to the focus of my recent artwork: decay and death. This subject matter is universal, yet few people take the time to observe whatever truths may be had regarding the process.

My love of learning, teaching, and providing creative spaces for people to connect informs my work and my life. For me, art is like life: messy, physical, and, if done with intent, beautiful. It is more about the process than the result; it is about recognizing that although we make choices, there are many things we cannot control; it is about being so present in the moment that everything else fades away. How I live, what I do, what I believe, and my art are all the same.

We, as human beings, are unique creatures that have a need to form places. This obsession with claiming spaces and turning them into places starts at a young age. Maybe it is the first time a child goes to the park and claims a corner of the sand pit, because they think the sand is better on the right side. Perhaps it is a specific seat in the bleachers a person sits in at every home football game. Or maybe it is much more significant, like the spot on the path by the curved tree, next to the bike shed where you said good-bye to your family the first day of your freshman year in college.

This thesis addresses the nature of the image and its relationship to human perception and memory. Traditionally psychology approaches the relationship between the image and the human in a representationalist register, in which the world represents itself through images to the subjective observer. The thesis questions these assumptions about the representational relationship between the world, the mind and the image through a study of people using digital photographic technologies. It argues that digital images exist as a complex network of technology and activity that manage their incessant movement, production, consumption, convertibility, connectedness and fragility. The digital image exposes the complex nature of the image as more than a simple representation. If this is the case, then human involvement with images as networks occurs in terms of our inclusion in the network rather than as a subjective observer positioned outside of the world. Henri Bergson proposes that we see the image in terms of a distinction between time and space rather than as an intermediary between a subject and the object. The implications of this for the way in which we think about the interaction between people and technology and the nature of perception and memory are explored through some data examples from three settings. These are; amateur photographers using digital technology; families looking through their stocks of digital images and remembering past events together and finally, displays of family member's histories and identities on the internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56).

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I am the one my friends call the creepy one. My art is not pretty or happy. It is an expression of my inner feelings and thoughts. I don't make pretty pictures because I find them void of true emotional substance. I developed my point of view when I photographed my eyes, which have become a consistent theme in my work. Eyes are the window to the soul and the key to my inner emotions. I have since expanded my work to include other images. I continue to seek ways to help my viewers experience my work both emotionally and visually. I want them to see the world through my eyes.

I am investigating the significance of historic events of flight through image making; particularly incidents that captured the collective imagination and became part of our cultural memory. These events have surpassed mere entries in historical texts and become mythic. In the terms of Jungian psychology, they have become symbolic. In terms of Semiotics, they have become signs. Through photographs and installation, I seek to understand their presence in my, and our, unconscious mind.