Phase Relation

Phase Relation is a series of generative animations that entangle the personal, cultural, and political through flickering layers of memory. Comprised of photographs that my father and I took in Cuba in 2007, these animations recall the instability of personal recollection with international relations.

When my father passed suddenly in 2019, this personal archive provided solace during the grieving process. We had traveled to Cuba from the United States legally on educational visas, as the US has imposed a travel ban and trade embargo on Cuba since the 1960s. When these photos were originally shot, I used the camera to navigate this milieu of power relations that included herself as tourist subject, the forbidden space of Havana, the people I encountered while there, and the dynamic histories of political relations that inform US travel to Cuba.

Working with these photographs about 15 years later through generative animations, juxtaposing the my perspective with my father’s in these shared spaces of experience, these collages present a historical, technological, geographic milieu that illuminates the relations of people with technologies.

The images are stills from generative animations printed on gold brushed aluminum as the size of postcards, referencing the quintessential tourist form of communication as they become gilded precious objects of shared, externalized memory. Three stills are captured from six animations and exist as one of a kind generative images.

Click on links below to view generative animations. Please note that they may take some time to load and are best viewed on a computer monitor.

Sedimentary Photos

https://elputnam.github.io/SedimentaryPhotos/

Techno Vernacular

https://elputnam.github.io/TechnoVernacular/

Corner Milieu

https://elputnam.github.io/CornerMilieu/

Tropicana Nights

https://elputnam.github.io/TropicanaNights/

Flickering Icons

https://elputnam.github.io/FlickeringIcons/

Patria O Muerte

https://elputnam.github.io/PatriaOMuerte/

Havana, Cuba (2007)

Below are analogue photographs shot in Havana, Cuba in 2007 that have not been digitally manipulated. These are double exposures using a Holga, a plastic toy camera notorious for its light leaks.