THE AUTONOMOUS PERSON

In the future, people won’t be confined to their 3-dimensional bodies as described by the “Substrate-Autonomous Person” complex. Eventually, people will be more inclined to generate identities in a multitude of substrates, such as a “platform diverse body”. A platform diverse body refers to a future body that is habitable in the physical/material world but also coexists in computer generated environments and virtual realities – similar to a matrix of sorts. The autonomous person is metaphorically exemplified throughout numerous futuristic phenomena such as clairvoyance, mind alteration and the alter-ego through photography.

By definition, clairvoyance is the power of discerning objects not present to the senses and/or the ability to perceive matters beyond one’s traditional perception. Through gaining information about a person, object or physical event one can begin to experiment in sensory deprivation to stimulate clairvoyance. The imagery generally attached to the term clairvoyance is more of a futuristic, “Sixth sense” type of imagery that has left traces throughout most forms of art.

When showcasing clairvoyance in photography, the photographer can use a plethora of techniques to achieve the look of a hypersensitivity towards higher energies. Blurring backgrounds and faces creates a “fade to black,” or in this issue “fade to white,” aura that lingers in each photo. Blurring faces almost forces one to think of the multiple possibilities as to what’s going on mentally in the photograph.

Using a camera for the above mentioned point of view, pictures will tell a complete unique story and will defy the imagination of the audience. Mind alteration pertains to the objects and spaces that surround your subject. How do people use, look at and experience the space around them? What evidence or suspicion is left behind? What mood is this individual in at that particular moment in time? 

Metaphorically speaking, the human mind is a data mining tool and to represent this in photography and art the creative variations are limitless. Alteration symbolizes the fascination for photography and the constant search for a personal revelation regarding the self.

Ghosting and fading effects, and flipping/inverting copies to symbolize the yin & yang of a subject tells so much with so little. The alter-ego concept is a popular concept showcased in countless forms of photography such as wedding and hair photography and even fashion editorials. But what if we focus on the self? What if we show the inner mental war we all face every day? This war reveals the many sides, personalities and perspectives of one object/individual on an in-depth level. The alter ego can be good, evil or a polar opposite of what’s visible at first sight.

A true but cliché fascination with light provides the different effects of light and shadow that capture an image in its rawest, most genuine state – originality. The autonomous person leads a life of hopeful seclusion that leaves normalcy in the dust and carries the torch of our future’s mindscape once married to secrecy and curiosity. Step into the light and fade to white as we venture into a world unknown, a second self, for an alter ego is the most trusted and intimate friend we know.  ▲