"visibility in compression"
Section MS14, Jermaine Francis
Keywords: photography, technology, sculpture, print
The project is executed through a series of six images printed on enhanced gloss paper in an A1 portrait format, arranged into pairs on the wall. each pair features a compressed and uncompressed version of the same photograph that has been passed through the Vocoder effect. The resulting images are glitched and stripped of narrative context with the only discernible differences being the exposed artefacts of JPEG compression. Consequently, the viewer is forced to critically examine the relationship between the images in each pair and how JPEG files lead to erasure through a form of simulacrum. This loss in visual data is further expressed through the physical curvature of the prints themselves, the images are never completely visible requiring the viewer to carefully peer around and examine details. The gloss paper, which is typically used in professional photography contexts, creates light distortions and reflections that further emphasise loss of visual information.