On My Mind – Spectacle and Photography in the Digital Age
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The document discusses the concept of spectacle and photography in today's image-saturated world. It references the large number of photos uploaded daily to social media and questions whether photography can still be considered an art form. Several experts and artists offer perspectives on the issues of too many images, the need for critical thinking over passive consuming, and the risk that spectacular images may drown out truly meaningful photos. The document advocates focusing on empathy, community, and following one's passions as possible ways to find an alternative to the surrounding spectacle.
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On My Mind – Spectacle and Photography in the Digital Age
- 1. On My Mind – Spectacle and Photography Actual Colors May Vary.
- 3. “Life – a movie” Youtube: Every minute + 72 hours of film. Facebook: 240 billion saved photos + 350 million more every day.
- 5. « We must feel more » Tania Singer (2013): “In our free market economy we’re indulging too much in pure consuming. Instead we need a healthy balance between job performance, power, consuming and caring, thinking of others and empathy.”
- 7. • Too many pictures • Drama & Authenticity • The definition of “Spectacle” • Détournement & Recuperation • Follow your passions • Empathic Communities • ACMV’s history • ACMV & The Spectacle • What we do
- 8. Robert Frank (2008): “There are too many images, too many cameras now. We’re all being watched. It gets sillier and sillier. As if all action is meaningful. Nothing is really all that special. It’s just life. If all moments are recorded, then nothing is beautiful and maybe photography isn’t an art any more. Maybe it never was.”
- 9. Thomas Ruff (2013): “There cannot be too many photographs, just like there cannot be too much information. The problem most people are facing is how to select: What is important, what is not important? If you preserve your ability to select, there can be as many pictures as there are, you simply pick the ones that are important for you.”
- 10. Umberto Eco (1979): “A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection – not an invitation for hypnosis.”
- 11. www.worldpressphoto.org/awards/2013/spot-news/paul-hansen Paul Hansen – World Press Photo of the Year (2013)
- 12. Fred Ritchin (2013): “The problem here is not so much the ethics of the dramatization, but more the anxiety that photographs, even of pivotal moments, will no longer be noticed if they are not rendered in a more spectacular fashion.”
- 13. www.aperture.org/shop/books/101-tragedies-of-enrique-metinides-2667 101 Tragedies of Enrique Metinides (1979)
- 14. Alex Selwyn-Holmes (2011): “It almost looks like a glamor shot magazines like Face or advertisers like Benetton often throw your way. ... Her blonde hair looked so soft, her manicured fingernails so red, ... you can almost feel like it has been staged.”
- 15. Enrique Metinides: “People would come out to stare and buy ice cream like at the movies.”
- 16. www.archive.instituteartistmanagement.com Guillaume Herbaut – Chinese weddings
- 17. Guy Debord (1967): “The spectacle grasped in its totality is both the result and the project of the existing mode of production. It is not a supplement to the real world, an additional decoration. It is the heart of the unrealism of the real society. In all its specific forms, as information or propaganda, as advertisement or direct entertainment consumption, the spectacle is the present model of socially dominant life.”
- 18. www.tomaszwiech.com Tomasz Wiech – Welcome to the paradise (2013)
- 20. www.florianvanroekel.com Florian van Roekel – How Terry likes his Coffee
- 21. Asger Jorn (1967): “Take a 35-year-old man. Each morning he takes his car, drives to the office, pushes papers, has lunch in town, plays pool, pushes more papers, leaves work, has a couple of drinks, goes home, greets his wife, kisses his children, eats his steak in front of the TV, goes to bed, makes love, and falls asleep. ...
- 22. Asger Jorn (1967): “Who reduces a man’s life to this pathetic sequence of cliches? A journalist? A cop? A market researcher? Not at all. He does it himself, breaking his day down into a series of poses chosen more or less unconsciously from the range of dominant stereotypes.”
- 23. www.piedlabiche.com The Situationists / Asger Jorn – Three-sided football
- 24. Détournement: “Turning expressions of the capitalist system and its media culture against itself.”
- 25. www.bighope.hu Dominic Hislop – Distance Correction
- 27. www.johnheartfield.com John Heartfield “Adolf, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spouts Tin”
- 28. www.metmuseum.org Punk: Chaos To Couture
- 29. Roberta Smith (2013): “The show is the ultimate confirmation that ... punk was absorbed by the culture around it, not least by blue-chip fashion designers on the prowl for new ideas.”
- 31. A way out of the surrounding spectacle? “FREE THE PASSIONS, NEVER WORK, LIVE WITHOUT DEAD TIME.”
- 32. Passion “In an ideal world we all should be able to do what we love – and make a living from it.“
- 34. Empathy “We believe empathy is the human drive we should concentrate on, it will lead to sociability, attachment, affection and companionship.“
- 36. Stereotypes “Stereotypes are fictions, they’re made up borders between people of different tribes, races, cultures, religions, states and economic and political systems.”
- 38. Communities “The internet can help us find people everywhere in the world who are similar to us. It’s easy to get in touch and work together.”
- 40. Communities “Right now, there is no alternative to the spectacle, we all face the economic pressure of capitalism, but we think it’s not enough to complain about it, we should focus on how to deal with it together.”
- 42. www.actualcolorsmayvary.com Actual Colors May Vary 2011
- 43. www.actualcolorsmayvary.com Actual Colors May Vary 2013
- 44. ACMV & the spectacle “It’s hard to stand out as a visual artist and compete with the spectacular collection of images on the internet.”
- 49. What ACMV is doing • Filter • Feature • Share • Support Actual Colors May Vary.