In the countdown to Camberwell College of Arts Undergraduate & MA Conservation Summer Shows next week, Camberwell blog has met with final year students to talk about their work and give us a glimpse into what to expect of their graduation show.

BA Photography Giacomo Raffaelli shares an insight into the aesthetics of scientific research

CCA: Why did you get into Photography?

GR: My initial engagement with photography was very instinctive. After high school I was studying piano at an Italian jazz music academy but I realized I had an equally strong interest in images and visual arts. I started playing with photography and video, and decided there was no point of shrinking down my possibilities to a specific discipline, but allow myself to experiment across media and languages. This is one of the main reasons why I chose the Photography course at Camberwell: it offered me the possibility of developing a cross-section approach to images and how they perform, as well as keep experimenting with sound and non-visual media as relevant aspects of my practice development.

CCA: Please describe your practice.

GR: I’m working in a variety of media, with a particular attention for the moving image, my practice is based on the use of documentary materials and their deconstruction. Through photography, video, sound and performance I explore matters of classification, the archival instinct and points of rupture betweenNature and Culture. Combining found and original elements, my works are often the result of speculative processes of translation of meanings, languages and visual typologies. The final outcomes take the form of controlled, concise installations, questioning the relationship of machinery with the human and the viewer’s space of action.

CCA: How has your practice developed during your time at Camberwell?

GR: During the course I had the chance to gain a better understanding of my interests and my way of approaching research and work making. With the help of the tutors and the support of my course mates, I started becoming more ambitious and confident with my work. I think improving these two qualities has been crucial for the development of my artistic practice throughout the course, and put me in the condition to initiate a professional practice after graduation.

Moreover, having a deeply research based approach, in which several tangential interests and phenomena are often simultaneously explored, I had to gradually learn to identify specific spaces in which to develop individual aspects of my work. In light of this, I started considering lectures and text works as a relevant part of my practice, in which to address my more theoretical and purely conceptual interests.

CCA: What are you preparing for your graduation show?

GR: For the degree show I will present three pieces of work, including a video-installation on plasma screen, a video-installation on iPad and a print. These works are part of a long term project, examining forms of measuring and the aesthetic character of devices used in scientific research. The main part of the project consists of an investigation of the research developed by a team of scientists at the National Physical Laboratory, who are currently attempting to redefine the kilogram prototype.

The project has led to the creation of an ongoing body of works including also a single-screen film, which was premiered at South London Gallery on 21st of May. These pieces are based on the combination of archival materials and documentary footage of scientists in action in the lab, with the use of green screen and 3D scanning technologies. By so doing, the project explores the yearning for exactitude and universal knowledge through the abstract quality of objects that are nevertheless handcrafted.

CCA: Any plans for after graduation?

GR: After graduation I will continue to produce works, through participating in residencies and cross-discipline workshops. After three years at college, I feel the need of engaging in more short-term initiatives, in which to better understand and define my working methodology. In particular I would like to expand the research on the idea of measuring, investigating potential relationships between science aesthetics and forms of display in contemporary art.

An aspect I am particularly keen to explore further is the investigation of collective work making, as well as organization and collaboration as relevant aspects of my practice. In this regard, I will take part in an art festival in Italy with three other students from BA Photography at Camberwell. After an exhibition we had at Camberwell Space last November, we decided to keep working collectively under the name Barcelona,
the city where we had our first show together. The performing arts productioncentre “Centrale Fies” invited
us to contribute to the festival “Skillbuilding”, through initiating a dialogue with other artists in order to investigate possible meanings of the notion of collective making.