Paper short abstract:

Collage technique offers a re-imagining of worlds. Applied to the notion of the commons, it offers a visual challenge to prevailing controlling images which perpetuate ideas of prejudice constructed by dominant groups (Hill Collins, 2021) and acts as an active medium of speculation and revelation.

Paper long abstract:

Collage has had an enduring role in the fields of art, text, film, literature and imagined space and most recently in architecture and town planning. When applied in the context of the commons, it operates both as an important visual challenge to prevailing controlling images which perpetuate ideas of prejudice constructed by dominant groups and institutions (Hill Collins, 2021) and as an active medium of revelation demonstrating the potential for transformation. It catalyses 'generative ideation and harnesses the potential for connecting art and life' (Bellanger, Urton, 2014).

In my current work, walking the city as an artist (and 'flaneuse'), I capture photography and video to create collages that function to subtly focus on 'the psychological experiences of the city and reveal forgotten, discarded, or marginalised aspects of the urban environment' (Lyons, 2017). The aim is to subvert visual forms of everyday daily life, and make identities and behaviours visible through a "collage eye".  These are the commons and uncommons (Moten et al, 2021) normally hidden. Applied in these contexts, utilising a collage approach 'can allow even an untrained maker to reach something profound without the barrier of technique (Campany, 2021). This paper will trace a long practice in photo collage work (both analogue and digital) that responds visually to place and demonstrates that reconstructing and re-presenting these images in collage constitutes an active medium of speculation and revelation.