|Vikki Hill
Research Associate
Vikki’s role in the CFPR is primarily to develop strategies for creating digital archives relating to various printing techniques. These archives are available on-line through the CFPR website as well as being available on disc for students and researchers.
Archives relating to the Collotype and the Woodburytype photo-mechanical printing processes have already been constructed and are accessible through the CFPR website. The aim for these archives is to present both text and image based material to their best advantage and to allow the user to interrogate the different material in separate ways. In order to achieve this aim, the main research involves devising methods for capturing both the primary information and the supporting information in a consistent manner. The utilisation of the software potential to present this information to the user in an easy to read format, both grammatically and aesthetically is also included in this aspect of research. Consistency in the collection of information is important as it allows for the effective retrieval of the data. The retrieval of information is also aided by building search strategies and functions into the archives.
Vikki is also interested in the aesthetic of the user interface and the differing demands of keeping the screen clean and uncluttered whilst still providing navigational tools to enable the user to move through the archive.
Other areas of research that Vikki is currently engaged in focus on the interlinking nature of memory and photography, in particular the use of the plastic lens in the production of images to act as the physical representation of the momentary glimpses into the past evoked by the involuntary memory response often sparked by external sensory stimuli.
Vikki is also currently engaged in a PhD study examining whether it is possible to create a neo-pictorialist aesthetic in contemporary photography through the use of mass manufactured low optical quality medium format cameras focussing on the Diana and the Holga models.
Vikki's current CV