Fiction and Reality
Short essay #2
Qianwen Deng
04/21/2019
Reading: Lugon, Olivier_Documentary Authority and Ambiguity
The double bind is strong: on the one hand, documentary images are more
dominant than ever. On the other hand, we have less and less faith in documents.
Nowadays, the documentary's visual material is part of the contemporary emotional
economy, supporting everything from humanitarian aid to the ongoing politics of fear.
Without it, the global media would be completely different, for example, the course of
world politics would be completely different. Images through the documentary
recording media also penetrate into the most intimate areas through mobile phones,
youtube videos and other interfaces. They not only entered the collective imagination,
but profoundly changed it.
In this context, it is not surprising that documentary practice has become one of
the most significant trends in the art field over the past two decades. Traditional
documentary photography and film have been reinvented and revitalized through the
combination with traditional arts such as video, performance, and conceptual art.
Recent documentary work has demonstrated the diversity and complexity of a new
form, from conceptual models to reflective photo essay presented through split-screen
slides, video reports of discoveries, reproduced prints and archaeological collages. Its
references range from traditional documentary art forms and traditional reportage to
third films, prose and avant-garde cinema, from reality TV to performance and
interventionist art. Although this innovative form of documentary art is ubiquitous, with
numerous exhibitions and other projects around the world on documentary practice
and contemporary art, discussion of the phenomenon remains largely confined to
scattered texts in catalogues and journals. This anthology attempts to overcome this
fragmentation and provides new perspectives on this key theme.
How credible and engaged are documentary photography and film these days?
As Lugon declares in this article, documentary has three major components: “the
encyclopedic/educational trend, the heritage/conservation line, and the social, political
approach—to which can be added aesthetic considerations affecting all three, as we
shall discover The first two options—the educational and the conservational.” The
documentary prototype still maintain a lot of self-conscious of what to document? And
what’s the meaning of documenting this? I prefer to use the arthistorian, Beaumont
Newhall to describe documentary in a higher status, it is “the creative treatment of
actuality.”
As I have contributed in class, I mentioned about the movie that made by Xu
Bing, a Chinese artist who is also a close friend with Ai Weiwei. The movie called
Dragonfly’s eyes. The artist didn’t invite any actors/actress to act in this movie. He
accessed to all the video tape from CC.
Fiction and RealityShort essay #2Qianwen Deng.docx
1. Fiction and Reality
Short essay #2
Qianwen Deng
04/21/2019
Reading: Lugon, Olivier_Documentary Authority and
Ambiguity
The double bind is strong: on the one hand, documentary
images are more
dominant than ever. On the other hand, we have less and less
faith in documents.
Nowadays, the documentary's visual material is part of the
contemporary emotional
economy, supporting everything from humanitarian aid to the
ongoing politics of fear.
Without it, the global media would be completely different, for
example, the course of
world politics would be completely different. Images through
2. the documentary
recording media also penetrate into the most intimate areas
through mobile phones,
youtube videos and other interfaces. They not only entered the
collective imagination,
but profoundly changed it.
In this context, it is not surprising that documentary
practice has become one of
the most significant trends in the art field over the past two
decades. Traditional
documentary photography and film have been reinvented and
revitalized through the
combination with traditional arts such as video, performance,
and conceptual art.
Recent documentary work has demonstrated the diversity and
complexity of a new
form, from conceptual models to reflective photo essay
presented through split-screen
slides, video reports of discoveries, reproduced prints and
archaeological collages. Its
references range from traditional documentary art forms and
traditional reportage to
3. third films, prose and avant-garde cinema, from reality TV to
performance and
interventionist art. Although this innovative form of
documentary art is ubiquitous, with
numerous exhibitions and other projects around the world on
documentary practice
and contemporary art, discussion of the phenomenon remains
largely confined to
scattered texts in catalogues and journals. This anthology
attempts to overcome this
fragmentation and provides new perspectives on this key theme.
How credible and engaged are documentary photography
and film these days?
As Lugon declares in this article, documentary has three major
components: “the
encyclopedic/educational trend, the heritage/conservation line,
and the social, political
approach—to which can be added aesthetic considerations
affecting all three, as we
shall discover The first two options—the educational and the
conservational.” The
documentary prototype still maintain a lot of self-conscious of
what to document? And
4. what’s the meaning of documenting this? I prefer to use the
arthistorian, Beaumont
Newhall to describe documentary in a higher status, it is “the
creative treatment of
actuality.”
As I have contributed in class, I mentioned about the
movie that made by Xu
Bing, a Chinese artist who is also a close friend with Ai
Weiwei. The movie called
Dragonfly’s eyes. The artist didn’t invite any actors/actress to
act in this movie. He
accessed to all the video tape from CCTV’s camera and select
thousands of CCTV’s
video clips and make up a whole different story. There are still
a man and woman as
main characters in the film, but the way Xu Bing choose to
show those main characters
are not often showing their front faces. Sometimes are the back
of a man and a
woman, sometimes just the side of their bodies. Most
importantly, the people he
5. choose to show in this film are extremely ordinary figures,
which means, you won’t
even be able to recognize them even you see them several times
in the movie; It gives
you the illusion that they are still the same people from the
previous scene. I believe
this is also one type from the documentary films, because the
director doesn’t do any
add-ons. All he created is a combination of different interesting
clips.
How has the relationship between our daily lives and our
surveillance systems
changed from the technology that helped reduce crime to the
technology that now
allows the general public to be a spectator or even a direct
participant? From his
interview, he specifically mentions that, "Human life relations
with monitoring, change a
lot. For example," The eye of The dragonfly "of material from
The network, but I found
that many people don't know already in The network of
monitoring picture. Our
previous cognitive, monitoring is a government would use such
as public security and
6. traffic department, this is a very concept of The past, like
political novel 1984,
totalitarian state monitoring is used to control the people, then a
relationship of The
Cold War, now the world's problems is not the problem of The
Cold War. Then is "The
Truman Show", the main character lives on an artificial stage,
which is monitored and
broadcast everywhere, so dragonfly eye seems to witness that
the imagination of that
movie has become a reality today. It can be said that the whole
world or China is
actually a big stage, with cameras in almost every corner, which
can be recorded and
broadcast at any time.”
It is the essential applied definition of documentary
documents that after I
reinterpreted with my personal experiences.
Dragonfly’s eyes (蜻蜓之眼，2017) Xu Bing
