Scanned Objects Become Ethereal Glitchy Art

Manitoba, Up in Flames

What do the photos in the series below look like to you? The ghosts of data? Scientific images? A melting computer screen? They’re actually the result of objects being moved about on a scanner—shockingly ordinary boring objects like CDs, gridded paper or plastic. In her series Scan, photographer Leanne Eisen transforms these everyday 3D forms into unrecognizable reflective patterns. By moving the objects around she forces a glitch in the digital imaging and creates distorted, watery, silvery shadows of their solid forms. She likens the pictures to darkroom experimentation, like using burning effects or producing photograms by placing objects directly onto photographic material.

She explains:

…each exposure represents a choreographed movement, a moment in time captured on a two-dimensional surface. By using trial and error, I reintroduce the possibility of happy accidents into the sterile and precise process of digital imaging. I have worked my way through a collection of scannable curios, from paper grids and greyscales to lights and reflective materials. I am now focusing on CD’s and DVD’s, thereby introducing a digital storage medium back into the scanning process. Through this exercise, I’ve learned to exploit limitations of my scanner in order to introduce intentional glitches.

They’re currently on display at the Pikto Gallery in Toronto.

Manitoba, Up in Flames II

Blank CD-R, 700MB

Blank DVD-R

Critical Mass II

The Mercury Songbook
Disc Three: Take the “A” Train

Photolucida Critical Mass: All Entrants, 2010

Data CD-R
(Submissions Package,Truck Contemporary Art)