Belief/B r o k e n N u m b e r s
Could noisy images be showing us phantoms that we cannot yet explain?
This work originates from the examination of a young artist’s relationship to home, religion, technology, and the South Asian belief that these are all closely connected and, even sacred.
Here, photographic noise- created ‘organically’ by increasing a camera’s ISO, or sensitivity to light- is interpreted through the lens of techno-animism. This follows from the beliefs that God is omnipresent, all beings and things are interconnected and technology cannot be separated from the human experience. In each image, photographic exposure becomes a measure of knowing.
The phrase ‘Broken Numbers’ is used to describe not only photographic noise, but also all information produced by computation that is considered useless, erroneous, or random and discarded.
This exploration began with images of Kolkata. As it shifts toward those of Providence, it carries these beliefs- of seeing a God in the noise, of the sacralization of the everyday- with it.
Photographed and Researched as part of an ongoing project, Belief/Broken Numbers is the adaptation of this work into a photo-story for desi—gned’s issue 3. Scroll to see pages. Additional images below and more coming soon.