Liminal Infrastructure: The Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio - Softcover

Bon, Lauren; Weschler, Lawrence; Optics Division Of The Metabolic Studio

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0985096004 ISBN 13: 9780985096007

Publisher: DePaul Art Museum, 2015

Synopsis

Led by artists Lauren Bon, Richard Nielsen, and Tristan Duke, the Optics Division of the Metabolic Studio is a team devoted to exploring and expanding the photographic medium. Working with the Liminal Camera, a massive, portable camera obscura fashioned from a shipping container, the Optics Division uses experimental technology in an ongoing effort to map and depict the American landscape. From the arid West to New York’s waterways, the camera has captured dramatic scenes of regions in transition.

As part of this project, The Liminal Camera presents newly commissioned photographs made in and around Chicago. Though enormous in size, the camera, transported on a semi-trailer truck, was unobtrusive from an outsider’s perspective, allowing the artists to work without drawing attention. Photographs could be developed from within the shipping container, blending the image’s subject with the process of photography itself. The resulting large-scale prints not only highlight the evolving history of photographic imaging, but also locate the city within a complex global network of transportation systems, industry, and commerce.

About this title

About the Authors

Lauren Bon is director of the Los Angeles-based Metabolic Studio.

A widely honored journalist, Lawrence Weschler is the director of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University. He is the author of twelve books, including Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Vermeer in Bosnia, and, most recently, Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences.

Gregory J. Harris is assistant curator at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago.

Edition details

• Publisher: DePaul Art Museum
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0985096004
• ISBN 13: 9780985096007
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 16
• Editor: Harris Gregory J.