## Assembling the museum-camera [PDF](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gH6IJ4zQYQcwR-t6TQcX26wETYLiCYaX/view?usp=sharing) <iframe width="650" height="450" src="https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/33360796"></iframe> [museum//camera 01](https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/museum-camera-01) ### Opening the shutter >A process set up anywhere reverberates everywhere.^[Massumi, Brian. _Semblance and Event: Activist Philosophy and the Occurrent Arts._ Technologies of Lived Abstraction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2011.] Carefully opening the window, folding it fully back on its hinges, there is an immediate in-rush of cold air, and an overwhelming vertiginous feeling from the abyssal void between the two buildings. Resisting the urge to grab the camera, the museum photographer (_m-p_) steadies, holding onto the window-frame for a second or two. The convex curve of the rear of the Museum’s Lecture Theatre dominates the view from the 5th floor window. The large metal case containing the [[Opening museumcamera#museum//camera|museum//camera]] is heavy. Carrying it from the mezzanine, the _m-p_ assembles the camera. Most of the interchangeable elements are metal. They fix the central support to the rail-clamp and attach it to a large tripod. Sliding the front and rear elements onto the support rail — aligning and fixing the elements in the vertical position using the tightening levers. The large concertina-like bellows are carefully removed from the case and locked into position in the interior of the front and rear elements. Finally, the lens is located in the aperture of the front element and secured in place, using the sliding metal clips (top and bottom). Attaching the shutter release completes the camera’s assembly. Secured to the tripod, they manoeuvre the heavy ungainly configuration into position. The mechanical action of the cable release signals the opening of the lens’ shutter. At two-minutes, the duration of the exposure is relatively long. The _m-p_ — who was busily engaged in-and-around the camera apparatus — is still. It’s important to not disturb the camera during the period of exposure. There is a low mechanical rumble from below, in the space between the complex of buildings. Freed, temporarily, from a choreographed set of movements leading up to this point: the _m-p_ falls into thought—caught in an indeterminate time-space—somewhere between the camera apparatus, the building and the duration of the exposure. This pause serves as a space for reflection, where theory, practice, and lived experience interweave — [[Conservation Lab (a relational model)#^cc4a1d|Breathe]]. Through these processes, the museum//camera evolves beyond mere technological assemblage into a lived experience of "photospherics," blurring the boundaries between museum, image, and imagination. The shutter open: the action of light on the film plate's light sensitive silver matrix is manifest in this stilled movement of the museum//camera at work. ^8aae41 <iframe width="650" height="450" src="https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/33360822"></iframe> [museum//camera 02](https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/museum-camera-02) By no stretch of the imagination is this the first photograph made in the Museum — nor is it the first appearance of a 165-year-old inhabitant, the *m-p*. That said, the identity of this cultural care-taker is unclear, yet to be decided. The *m-p* is an invention of sorts — a guide to the intimate relations between the museum and photograph, with a unique perspective on how the photographic apparatus functions and how it might operate otherwise. This account is best understood as amateur natural history. If we understand _amateur_ as intimating a sense of curiosity, wonder and care. ### Assembling The assembled camera is heavy. It took some effort to manoeuvre the ungainly assemblage into position. The _m-p_ carefully moved a few things; papers, glass weights, some files, from the desk and window-ledge where the camera is now situated. Climbing onto the ledge, they place a small bag containing a light meter, focusing loupe, stopwatch, and spirit level, near the camera — close-to-hand. The blinds, on this side of the studio, usually shut to minimise the deleterious effects of natural light on objects and artworks, are open. The Paper conservation studio is located on the 5th Floor of the RCA Block, at the North side of the Museum’s South Kensington site. The building, erected in 1863, was home to the art schools of the Royal College of Art. In 1996, they handed back to the Museum, and they refurbished it predominantly as conservation studios, in 1996. With everyone left for the evening, the studio, usually a hive of activity, is quiet. The _m-p_ turns off the studio’s overhead lights. In the daylight from the large windows that dominate the length of both sides of the room, it’s still possible to make out several large workbenches running perpendicular to the windows, and an additional arrangement of low benches. The scene unfolds a heterogeneous assortment of objects—posters, prints and photographs—each in various stages of repair, analysis. Intermingled amongst these museum-objects are the tools and materials essential to their conservation. Brushes and hand tools lie across individual workstations, their very presence a testament to the ongoing processes of preparation and repair. It’s also hard to ignore the prosaic accumulation of paperwork, files, and the ubiquitous computer. The _m-p_ adjusts the height of the tripod. The camera, now level, points at the building opposite. A complex of gallery buildings linking the east and west of the Museum (The Residencies in the West and the Sheepshanks Gallery to the East). The _m-p_ leaning precariously, carefully folds the window back fully on its hinges. It’s a long way down. Again, the rush of verticality, ingress of air, and the low hum of machinery. <iframe width="650" height="450" src="https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/33360905"></iframe> [museum//camera 03](https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/museum-camera-03) ### Flusser’s Black box At the time of exposure it is only the enclosing of the camera’s interior (closing the shutter and inserting the film cassette in the rear element) that completes the functional apparatus. A camera must be light-tight, as darkness is a prerequisite for exposing the light sensitive matrix, be it a chemical emulsion or digital sensor alike. The philosopher of media, Vilém Flusser, characterises the relationship between the camera and its operator: ‘The functionary controls the apparatus thanks to the control of its exterior (the input and output) and is controlled by it thanks to the impenetrability of its interior.’^[Flusser, _Towards a Philosophy of Photography_. London: Reaktion Books, 2000, 28.] In _Towards a Philosophy of the Photograph_ Flusser writes: >With technical images, however, the matter is not so clearly evident. It is true that with these images another factor places itself between them and their significance, i.e., a camera and a human being operating it, but it does not look as if this ‘machine/operator’ complex would break the chain between image and significance. On the contrary: The significance appears to flow into the complex on the one side (input) in order to flow out on the other side (output), during which the process - what is going on within the complex - remains concealed: a ‘black box’ in fact. The encoding of technical images, however, is what is going on in the interior of this black box and consequently any criticism of technical images must be aimed at an elucidation of its inner workings. As long as there is no way of engaging in such criticism of technical images, we shall remain illiterate.^[Flusser, _Towards a Philosophy of Photography,_ 16.] The interior of Flusser’s ‘black box’ appears cold and inhospitable. Its inner workings impenetrable and concealed. The concept of ‘encoding’ also comes across as somewhat mechanical and devoid of life. The shutter opens mechanically. With the lens’ aperture fully open (f 9), there's enough light penetrating the museum//camera’s dark interior to enable framing and focus. A faint, inverted image is visible on the ground-glass screen. The relatively wide angle of the lens cuts a vertical slice from the building opposite (portrait format). Shrouding the camera’s rear element, With the focusing cloth shrouding the _m-p_ scans the image on the ground-glass screen. The convex curve of the Museum’s lecture theatre dominates the screen; pipework, cabling runs vertically, further overlaying an abundance of brick, dividing the image-space. The lights are on in the student library (Top-left). There is movement, people working in the glare of the overhead lights. Using the camera’s in-built spirit levels as a guide, they make a few minor adjustments, ensuring the front and rear elements are level, and in plane to the building opposite. The museum//camera has the run of the studio. Each opening of the shutter establishes a different point of view, contingent on factors such as the time of day and quality of light. Save for one gesture, the camera is placed in plane to the opposite building. The distance between the two buildings, the distance between the camera and its object, collapses in the faint image. Drawing closer, placing the focusing loupe placed against the ground-glass screen, and scanning the image across the surface of the glass, they systematically check the focus, depth of field, and parallax — paying particular attention to the edges of the image. The magnified scene swims in a movement of mosaic-like brickwork. <iframe width="650" height="450" src="https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/About"></iframe> [museum//camera 04](https://foldmuseumcamera.cargo.site/About) ### Once more, again Following the camera’s optic path, the _m-p_ checks the scene, taking light readings readings of the mid-tones of the brickwork, the darkest areas in shadow, and the contrasting higher luminance of the artificial light falling from several of the building's large windows. After evaluating the range, they set an aperture (f.45) and calculate the length of exposure (approximately 6 minutes). The fading of the light makes it difficult to determine a precise exposure time, so the *m-p* improvises. Setting the lens to Bulb, the mechanical action of the cable release opens the shutter. The camera’s interior floods with more that light—a host of other characters and characteristics—an ingress of air accompanied by the hum of machinery, someone, and/or something still at work in the next door studio. As the light rapidly fades (evening drawing in) the _m-p_ improvises. With the shutter still open, they recalculate the time of exposure on the fly. The museum//camera becomes more than an an assemblage of technology and operator; it evolves into a nexus of lived [[photospherics and the deeply felt everyday|photospherics]], folding and reticulating the museum and its image into one another—yet again, and one more time.