The linear perspective techniques developed between the fourteenth and early sixteenth centuries were intended to assist in realistic renderings of buildings and natural objects. Linear perspective was then superseded by the popularisation of camera obscura in the late sixteenth century. At its most rudimentary, this new method of seeing required the spectator’s body to be removed from the scene being transcribed. Comprising a darkened room with a single aperture through which an inverted image of the outside world was projected onto a surface, this technology allowed the necessary information to bypass the human perceptual and representational apparatus – faculties which, as we know, are particularly unreliable and susceptible to disruption. By bestowing a precise depiction of a scene in which the viewer is not immediately present, the camera obscura’s hole or void can be considered one of the earliest instances of the automation and outsourcing of the aesthetic faculties to technology.

Sorting Machine presents a series of paintings by Marnie Edmiston. Continuing her interest in perception and cognition, the work in this exhibition details fragmented scenes populated by strange objects and partial bodies. Rendered in a stylised and unnatural fashion-employing “archaic” perspective techniques, punctuated by holes and voids-the “still” character of these images masks an unfolding sense of disquiet. These are images of and from the uncanny continuum between the technical and the human. This exhibition is held as part of the Monash Graduate Emerging Artist Prize, awarded by Sutton Gallery on the occasion of the 2017 MADA MFA graduate exhibition.