I received Rosamond Purcell's art book, Bookworm, for Christmas and just went through it last night. It's one of the more unusual books of photography I've ever seen - Purcell specializes in collage art and also photos of decay. At one point she explains in her introduction that she had a researcher friend have his termites work on some pages so she could take pictures of them partially eaten - you wouldn't think that was cool, but when you see them (and how carefully Purcell chose certain pages for them to attack), you are really blown away.
Agni has several photos on their site and you can also read about a fairly recent exhibition Purcell conducted that includes a bit about her creative process.
It's looking at books like this (and reading such outstanding introductions which really explain the creative process) that make me think anything is truly possible. If you can use termites to create art then really, the possibilities are endless aren't they?
Purcell also collaborated with the wonderful paleontologist and thinker Stephen Jay Gould for two books: Illuminations and Finders Keepers. Quite obviously I plan to buy copies of each. (And if you've never read the Powells interview with Gould, now would be a great time to.) Gould died in 2002 after a twenty year on again/off again battle with cancer. I actually used his probability theories about the disease as part of my argument on research methods in the written exam portion of my master's degree. He was a brave bold man, and I can't imagine what innovative things he and an artist like Purcell must have accomplished.
Creativity at its best, that's for sure.
