Picturing Clouds of Unknowing: Photography, Lostness, and Cognitive Decline

Lucy Carolan

The central premise of this doctoral project is that the progressive cognitive ambiguity that is dementia can be creatively apprehended by way of lostness. As defined by Rebecca Solnit, ‘lost’ holds “...two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away, getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing.” The initial hypothesis of this research was that in certain neurodegenerative conditions the familiar and unfamiliar can confoundingly combine, and that it’s through the lens of this particular combination that some comprehension of dementia as lived experience may be approached. The disorienting misperceptions most commonly encountered in cognitive decline are visual in nature. Given, then, that dementia reveals the importance of vision to perception, how may the photographic, with lostness as optic, be used to illuminate cognitive decline? In what ways can creatively visualising aspects of neurodegeneration in dementia inform understandings of its existential ambiguities?

PICTURING CLOUDS OF UNKNOWING:

Photography, Lostness, and Cognitive Decline

This exposition contains complete documentation of my creative practice doctoral project, which was undertaken in the fine art department of Newcastle University, 2017-2022, and completed in viva on 25th October 2023.

In the course of my research I produced three sub-projects; two were installations, and a series of artists' books formed the third. These sub-projects each have their own page, with videos and photographs showing finished pieces and different stages of their development.

The exposition also contains the thesis written to accompany my practice-centred research, with each section of this text (introduction, chapters, conclusion, bibliography) on its own separate page. All of the main pages can be accessed from the contents section of the navigation bar above left, and via the hyperlinked titles under the images to the right.

The research was supported by:

- AHRC/Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership

- Northern Network for Medical Humanities Research

- Newcastle University Doctoral College Enhancement Fund