Anastasia Tyurina’s visual art project involves aesthetic approaches to scientific photography made by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), a tool that has expanded the boundaries of observation and representation of the micro world since it was introduced to scientific research in the mid-1960s. Scientific photography is commonly perceived as a way of recording scientific data through techniques such as photomicrography, high-speed photography, time-lapse photography, x-ray photography, aerial photography and many other photographic techniques.
By exploring the interplay between the indexical and iconic modalities in the process of creating photomicrographs, Tyurina seeks to imbue them with new meanings and re-appropriate scientific photography as a creative practice and a source of science communication to the general public. Specifically, this project investigates the reinterpretation of photomicrographic images of micro-scale drops of water made by the Scanning Electron Microscope after evaporation, and thus turns scientific photography into an art form.
Tyruina’s practice aims to draw attention to the qualities of water through enhanced visual details that aid in the interpretation of, and differentiation between, water samples. Building on the fact that scientific tools have brought new ways of seeing the world, the artistic application of them seeks to extend our perception. An aesthetic engagement with photomicrography gives viewers the possibility to see in the particular configurations of inherent features of water a horizon of meaning that was previously unseen as well as it refers to a creative ability to observe natural phenomena over and beyond the directly visible.
Opening Event: Thursday, 30 March 2017, 6 – 8 pm
Venue: POP Gallery, 27 Logan Road, Woolloongabba
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 10am-4pm, Thursday, 12pm-8pm
