Poor Images - Pathetic attempts

In her essay “In defense of the poor image” published as part of efflux #10, October 2009 Hito Steyerl defines poor images:

The poor image is a copy in motion. Its quality is bad, its resolution substandard. As it accelerates, it deteriorates. It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail, an errant idea, an itinerant image distributed for free, squeezed through slow digital connections, compressed, reproduced, ripped, remixed, as well as copied and pasted into other channels of distribution.

(…)

Poor images are thus popular images—images that can be made and seen by the many. They express all the contradictions of the contemporary crowd: its opportunism, narcissism, desire for autonomy and creation, its inability to focus or make up its mind, its constant readiness for transgression and simultaneous submission.⁹ Altogether, poor images present a snapshot of the affective condition of the crowd, its neurosis, paranoia, and fear, as well as its craving for intensity, fun, and distraction. The condition of the images speaks not only of countless transfers and reformattings, but also of the countless people who cared enough about them to convert them over and over again, to add subtitles, reedit, or upload them.

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/

Images created not solely with multifunctional near-prosthetic devices but also with the intention to further use on social media – for communication - are of subjective value, presenting an emotional link to the person taking them, infiltrating the represented content with personal aspects through mood, color, crop and even choice. The emoticon like image stands for a state of mind of the user, a narrative of individual thoughts. Less than their actual discrete content, they entail the user’s presentation of self over a course of time. The individual languages are distinct, they can be described as style but similar to discussing fashion and clothing, it is the fine line running between clothes as expression of self and clothes as synthetic disguise that make up the complex discussion. Being prone to images of decay might be a pose might be a feeling.

The chaotic multifunctional application of a device allows for a habitual gesture of image making ever so fluid between dinner, office work, leisure, a conversation with a person and the actual act of depiction. The device ties closely to body with functions such as two-finger zoom configuring as literal „attention drawing” in real time gaze. Both the camera and smartphone obviously technologically interfere with what we see, but through its permanent connection with our body for diverse use - permanently in our hands - the smartphone snap creates an illusion of oneness between device and person, ultimately image and person. It is not simply a soup, or not even a soup I am eating, it is I eating soup - that granted without my being visible in the very image. 

Image making has become an ubiquitous act and strategy by any one person for communication. While the intention of the user that produces discussed imagery, has to be studied with the critical mindset of a society on stage my dealing with images of that provenance focuses on what they can formally and emotionally entail. Their psychological and physical linkage to a specific self and its subjective emotional quality and complexity as fostered by its users ambiguous intentions oscillating between intimate self confession and generalized statements of presumed universal character, wish for recognition, reification of memory through pictorial documentation, willful visual deception and enhancement – filters, Selfies - ultimately a complex language of individual use of images. 

The lecture will focus on the relationship between image as documents of potential public relevance and its users or authors subjective intentions and connection with assorted imagery.

Exaggerating this idea, we will look at images as streams of content linked to the person selecting them. Three guests are invited to present images corresponding with their personal practice and to their subjective likening during the time of the lecture as short presentations. A practical approach to image communication will be encouraged between participant students of the lecture e.g. through image based media.

Guests:

* Flaka Haliti, Artist
* Immanuel Elbau, Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist
* Christophe Charon, Virtual Artist 

All information during lecture will be gathered via dropbox and can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gbapgicb2icz9gr/AAAJY05wHrs2OiKw96KceBlfa?dl=0

All dates to be confirmed.

 

 

First Dates:

TUE 27th of October 14.00 to 17.00/ 3h at Seminarraum A
THU 05th of November, 15.30 to 18.30 Uhr/ 2h at Hörsaal 5 
FRI 06th of November, 10.00 to 13.00 Uhr/ 3h at Hörsaal 5