The Patent can be defined as the authority to give an individual exclusive rights to an invention; this entails the prohibition of making and selling the invention to everyone but the inventor. As a form of intellectual property, the patent is a vehicle for privatization, a product from capitalism. As artists working in the medium of photography, we buy our equipment, tools, and displaying supplies from companies competing for profit. From the Daguerrotype to the latest digital hardware, capitalist traits of the patent are inherent in photography's identity -building a basis for a predominately consumerist art form. Unpatented is a project born from the start of making photographs for the series Slit. Because slitscan cameras are not commercially manufactured, I was forced into modifying existing cameras to perform the specific functions for strip photography. Inspired from the DIY-Hack capture, I am engaged in repurposing patented objects to function outside their intended use. Using objects either scavenged, donated, or purchased secondhand, the goal of Unpatented is to thrive as an artist working in the medium of photography, while dodging photography's inherent consumerist traits.
