Description

Collapparatus and the Lingering
The alternative processes require a lingering or dwelling in the liminal space between concept and image; a place where experience, experimentation, imagining and discovery meet. The threshold; known and unknown, seen and unseen, where materiality becomes the tactile. The slowing of the process, the grappling with the tools, and the dialog with the concepts and ideas creates a locale for the creative acts to emerge. Lingering in the liminal space between concept and image, allowed time and space to dwell, be still, observe and listen to my nonhuman co-artists.
This slowing opened my ears and eyes to the movements of the sun, and it’s horizonal trajectory across the sky. The lingering allowed space for the collaboration of both human and nature. The texture of the ground, the deep recesses of the shadows, and the pale-yellow gossamer clouds, all working, producing co-creating and re/creating. I found the more I lingered and resigned agency, the freer and easier the work became. I shifted from head knowledge pride, to accord and awe. The materiality of photography was emerging. The materials: light earth, stone, sand and water moved from medium to fellow traveller.
The beautiful vibrant entanglements of man and nature in accord, composing, tangible intra-actions. I “felt the visceral and palpable senses of surprise, delight, frustration, puzzlement, and even bewilderment. By being attentive to materials and to material engagements, they (I) began to perceive the world as a nexus of intra-acting relations while learning to see and think differently” (LaBlanc, 2019 p. 10).
For further lingering I spent time sitting with the images taken. I studied them allowing emotions and thoughts to percolate and bubble to the surface. Starting with word associations I started to recognize emotions, themes and patterns. As I wrote words started to float above the page. I grabbed these words and played with them. Ordering, reordering, manipulating, arranging, deleting, and adding until a poem started to emerge. This process pulled me out of my comfort zone; I allowed it to lead. It deepened my connection to the image and my co-artists. It took me to places I never would have adventured to, if I hadn’t passed the reins.
The following three images and poems are shared together. These images were taken in collaboration with light.

LeBlanc, N., & Irwin, R. L. (2019). A/r/tography. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.393