FRAMED IN TIME: A CINEMAGRAPH SERIES OF ... - Niewland Media

FRAMED IN TIME
Method
The theoretical perspective informing the research of this study is derived from
the methodology of Grounded Theory. The primary text that provided insight into this
analysis was Theoretical Sensitivity (Glaser, 1978). Glaser states that, “Grounded Theory
is based on the systematic generating of theory from data” (p. 2). Generating theory was
an outcome of thorough analysis of cinemagraphy as a form of new media. Through
analysis of aspects of design fundamentals inherent in cinemagraphy as well as thorough
research of literature relative to themes apparent in the medium, a theoretical framework
was constructed. Rather than pursuing a hypothesis prior to analyzing the medium,
implementing a Grounded Theory methodology enabled artistic and theoretical threads of
cinemagraphy to become visible and apparent. Glaser (1978) contends “that there is
much value in the conceptualizing and conceptual ordering of research data into a body
of theory” (p. 3).
The thematic basis for the cinemagraph series, Framed In Time, is capturing the
essence of everyday life. The series encapsulates fleeting moments of the everyday to
unmask events that typically remain imperceptible. The series was influenced by the
writing of Michael de Certeau, particularly through the ideas he presents in The Practice
of Everyday Life (1984). One of the main tenants in his writing was to theorize everyday
practices and actions that typically go unnoticed or reflected upon. The goal of his work
was to make “everyday practices, “ways of operating” or doing things, no longer appear
as merely the background of social activity [enabling] a body of theoretical questions,
methods, categories, and perspectives, by penetrating this obscurity, [in order to make] it
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