W_CCD_1· Aug 2021

installation

A series of photos taken at night in the "Auenwald" forest (51°18'49.9"N 12°21'33.1"E), with heavily manipulated digital cameras.

SONY DSC H-50 img 3, method: infrared light, overheated sensor
SONY DSC H-50 img 3, method: infrared light, overheated sensor ↗
SONY DSC H-50 img 4, method: infrared light, overheated sensor
SONY DSC H-50 img 4, method: infrared light, overheated sensor ↗




To bring out the CCD sensor noise produced by the cameras, I held a flame just below the exposed image sensor. Heat, or an increase in the entropy of the system, causes ghostly/random charges to appear more frequently in semiconductors - noise. I was taking pictures with one hand and holding a lighter with the other. This eventually damaged the CCD sensor and resulted in severe digital image artefacts.


CANON IXUS 30 img 1, method: visible light, burnt sensor
CANON IXUS 30 img 1, method: visible light, burnt sensor ↗
CANON IXUS 30 img 7, method: visible light, sensor at the brink of burn-out
CANON IXUS 30 img 7, method: visible light, sensor at the brink of burn-out ↗
CANON IXUS 30 img 7, detail
CANON IXUS 30 img 7, detail ↗


work origin

A year ago, I went for an evening walk in the Auenwald forest. I had forgotten the time and it was getting darker and darker until I could barely see anything. The longer I stayed there in the dark, the more I noticed a flickering before my eyes in which I thought I recognised patterns, figures and faces. The outlines of thousands of bare branches, twigs and leaves blurred into a unity that I experienced as noise - a superimposition of information that I could not resolve. Noise in all its manifestations has fascinated me for a very long time, but this was the first time I perceived it so intensely and directly. In the "W_*" series of works, I experimented with different ways of creating and perceiving noise in the same place, based on this experience.

This specific work was done in preparation for the forest floor installation: W_CCD_2.