These three images focus on the panicking unreliability, discomforting absorption, and loss by digitization relating to digital technology.
Description
For my first image, I depict a person feeling panicked during a blackout, as all their devices have lost power, and we are to assume that they have some kind of important task to do on these devices.
I tried to focus a lot on the lighting of the stage. The only source of light is the three devices, which are each showing an image of a dead battery which I created in photoshop. I am trying to inflict panic upon the viewer through a familiar sight of inconvenience. I also made sure to introduce grain into the image, which I hoped gave a reinforced feeling of uncomfortableness. I based the image around a concept present in Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s work: an ordinary subject placed within a narrative, such as in “New York City” (1996). Although the subject may be ordinary, every aspect of the scene has been carefully placed to return a certain result.
For my second image, I present a sofa, however, a floating iPad and computer are present.
The viewer is to infer that there are invisible people sitting there. The concept I am trying to present is how absorbed we are when interacting with our digital technologies, and how other people can become invisible to us through this absorption. Through this concept, I try to show an idea which the viewer may not have thought of when on their digital devices, then causing discomfort. I took inspiration from Yves Klein’s “Leap into the Void” from 1960. As we learned in lecture, Klein used overlapping images to make his photograph. When taking this image, I took a picture of an empty sofa, one of me holding an iPad, and one of me holding a computer. By overlaying these different images, I created the illusion of floating devices.
My final image is one of a person vacuuming a portrait of a young boy, and this image can be seen appearing on a computer which is connected to the vacuum via a cable.
On the left, images of the boy are lined up in order of younger to older, and on the right, empty picture frames are presented. This image is trying to portray digitization, and how we place ourselves into the digital world, to the point where our growth and memories are being entirely digitized. I hope to make the viewer feel a sense of personal loss.
The frames’ sizes are ordered in how physical the boy’s self is as he grows up, becoming more and more digital as time goes on, his past already entirely digitized.
When creating this image, I wanted to create a similar feel to Gregory Crewdson’s work. I attempted to make a somber feeling through my lighting. I also tried to replicate the idea of having an image which has the viewer decode the context while being bizarre, such as Crewdson’s “Ophelia” from 2001.
Works Cited
Crewdson, Gregory. (Untitled) Ophelia, 2001.
diCorcia, Philip-Lorca, New York City, 1996.
Klein, Yves. Leap into the Void, 1960.
Program
Filmed using a Sony Cyber-shot DSC RX-100 compact point-and-shoot camera and edited with Adobe Photoshop.