Search & Reward - The Little Things That Motivate Us

Artistry lends itself to the hunter-gatherer mentality: that the act of searching for the thing is the art itself, and the result is the nourishment; the reward. We felt the pleasantness of the search as kids when we looked for bugs in the dirt, or played hide and seek, or went on dates, or shopped for groceries, or when we spent hours looking for hidden purple flowers in an RPG. Historically, humans derived pleasure as reward when following game to new hunting grounds, searching for edible roots, panning for gold, identifying stars, among many other things. The reward system trains us to look at our world in a variety of colored lenses that lead us to lasting success (i.e. survival). As visual artists, we certainly must survive, but with our needs met, our drive to pleasantly search now involves looking at our environment for a unique perspective, a thing out of place, a thing uniquely in it's place, or perhaps an effervescent moment - something that we can make permanent as a still or moving image, clarifying and subduing the subject for our analysis and appreciation (which is, personally, why we love slow-motion)!

We love visual arts for the way they allow us to see the world with moxie and curiosity; we live to both find our subjects and capture their essence. In this article on Scientific American, researchers used a variety of tests on subjects to see whether or not they would exploit a set of scrabble letters - as in, use them without trading as many in - or explore the odds by trading their letters in for new ones. What they found is that the subjects that were prepped to do one or the other followed their prep work, either sticking with their letters if primed for scarcity of large sources (i.e. “lumps” of goods), or trading them in if primed for abundant but spread out sources of goods. This showed that the human brain is quite adept at switching back and forth between foraging and mining. In a translation to the arts, one searches for their subject - perhaps a discarded loaf of bread on the sidewalk in front of a pond of ducks - and then mines it for the reward of interesting images, perhaps a beautiful shot that shows us how ducks rely on humans, both as the givers and producers of food (ducks can’t make bread!). The foraging and mining reward system is so deeply a part of us that we switch back and forth between each state of mind without awareness of it (have you ever stood in front of the fridge with the door open for 5 minutes before finally deciding on something?)

When we explore our world through photo, video, music, and other sensory arts, we are opening ourselves to the subtleties that are are typically background noise in the presence of bigger threats. Perhaps, when we walk on a busy street in the rain, we don’t notice the beautiful stained glass window on the house to our left, because we are busy gently monitoring the slippery cars narrowly staying in their lanes. We are obliged to focus on our safety. When we "turn on" our artistic, curious mind, we might still notice that stained glass window despite our need to protect ourselves; as artists, we make room for the reward even when we may have unmet needs. The discovery of the unique thing, much like our ancient foraging for foods, reminds us there is reward in the chaos.

These little moments - the little finds - are what drives our work. We're constantly searching for engaging depths of this world - and we love sharing what we find. We love getting uncomfortable to achieve our thirst for art.

What is 'Visual Authenticity'?

When we started building One Apparatus 8 years ago, we struggled to define our visual style. As early 20's, post-college contrarians, we joked that our indefinability was our definable quality - but that's not easily sellable. So we took a cue from some of our favorite filmmakers and decided to study our craft and experiment freely before settling into ourselves. We also gave thought to the future we live in and how it affects the work we do going forward, both ethically and creatively.

We realized that, in this future, much of the focus in photography relies on extremism, exploitation, and sensationalism. Psychologically, feeling strong emotions towards an image, (perhaps shock, awe, shame, or, in my case, a reaction to the "cool" factor) is what tends to make an image, and artist, memorable. Attention is pulled in many directions in this blur of modern multitasking, through webpages, news blurbs, social media, and other attention-grabbing spaces. Our compartmentalization of time - the time we give each image - becomes more and more brief, perhaps only a second. As we slice our attention into smaller slivers, we become fulfilled only by the most attention-worthy media. Our consumption becomes our attention-driving force. It's no wonder then, that the images that give us the strongest reactions tend to be the ones that get that microsliver of our capacity. We want the biggest bang for buck.

What we learned during the past 8 years is that the imagery Brendan and I create is softer, gentler, less intense or attention-grabbing, yet layered, nuanced, and patient. We realized that our images, though digital, were often true representations of the scenes we experienced. We realized that we favored authenticity over sensationalization, and that our work can both look cool and contain depth.

It's incredible to live in a time where we look at an image and wonder if it's real. We want to ensure that what we create remains authentic, to act as a small counterweight to technological fantasy. We honor the progress artists have made to advance the technology and style of modern images. However, we can also be realistic with our personalities and style by honoring what makes us different. A good image or video doesn't just have to be an advancement of the industry, like a new drone angle or computer-generated effect, though they're definitely awesome in their own way. A good image or video can also be what it is in its simplicity - thoughtful, important, and memorable - a story. We realize that if the extremity of technological advancement didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to inhabit this disposition. It's a bit ironic that we shoot and edit digitally while striving for film-like authenticity.

Our intent with One Apparatus is to exist in the middle of the sliding scale of photography. Not so far to one side: using cutting-edge technology to create out-of-this-world imaginative imagery that is cleverly misrepresentative of the thing it represents, and not so far to the other side: creating imagery that is so true to what it is that it becomes a form of empty still-life, lacking a foundation but evidently beautiful. We are truly in the middle, and we want to find a way to make that palatable.

We hope there will be a call for authenticity as we progress, a sort of American neorealism that reminds us our home on Earth is as beautiful as the digital heavens we imagine.

We certainly plan to play with technologies available to us while maintaining a focus on natural-light, realism (like using practical effects rather than digital), and inherent emotional depth. In our portraits, we prefer to take images of the subject in a space where they feel comfortable. We typically avoid standardized methods and instead experiment with what feels right for the subject, objectively. We don't want to paint an essence onto them - it already exists in fleeting moments. The same goes for product, nature, and event photography. What is the emotional core of the place, party or object? Does it's connotation resonate as a certain ambient color or exposure? Does it have an innate grandeur, or is it more grounded? The essence of a subject must be assessed before the true image - be it still or moving - can be captured.

In that way, our photography is both subjective and objective: we want to see the thing as it is, but inherently cannot avoid our own interpretations.

Stick with us to see where we go! We promise to be visually authentic.

Rodale Institute

As part of the modern hemp revolution, CV Sciences sent Brendan on an excursion to the Rodale Institute in Eastern Pennsylvania near the Appalachian Mountains. He documented the experimental farm where organic research is conducted, and met with young farmers pursuing hemp as an personal and economic crop of value. The experience spread beyond hemp, as he learned about the lifestyle of emerging farmers, the realities of research, and the eccentrically loving personalities of the folks involved in the sowing of land.

We’re grateful to have met all the cool folks at Rodale, and hope we can work with them again the future. They’re doing much more than organic hemp research!

Coming Soon