They also ran

Williams, Ross ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8853-3172 (2019) They also ran. [Artefact]

Abstract

The output is an artefact, a photograph informed by the Race Tech archive, capturing a dog participating in a sporting event. Research process: Race Tech is the dedicated technical facilities provider that has maintained British Racing at the forefront of global broadcast technology for more than 70 years, its archives include filmed photo finishes from all major races since 1945 as well as images from the Olympic games and other sporting events. Through archival exploration, Williams became interested in the representation of competitors who aren’t competing for the results. He scanned numerous negatives, specifically analysing images of dogs that were in danger of being erased and forgotten because they were not winners. He selected one image in particular that typified his findings. Research insight: During the process of analysing a small element of a much larger archive, Williams considered the technical approaches employed to evidence events. He found that these approaches result in very specific visual outputs with aesthetic qualities. The way in which the disregarded dogs are represented is somehow erased or distorted by the machinery recording the event; only the competing bodies are worthy of recording, the rest are written out of this point of history. The indexical relationship between the subject and the photographic is diminished in the case of the losing dogs. Dissemination: The artefact was exhibited as part of ‘Make Good’, Leeds Arts University, 27 September 2019 and within ‘Peers’, Vrij Paleis Amsterdam, 29 September 2019 as part of the ‘Unseen’ Photography festival.

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