In Into the Universe of Technical Images, Flusser (2011) writes, “The critical reception of technical images demands a level of consciousness that corresponds to the one in which they are produced”. Looking around at the hoopla, blind vitriol and simplistic binary nonsense that passes for discussion about art, photography and generated synthetic images, it seems we have a way to go.
When I wrote Image in the Age of Entganglement (2020) and created its associated project, why is there an astronaut in a field of flowers/ (2021), I knew the 5000 word limit was too limited for its topic. That topic being – until we find a way to overcome our outdated perception of reality, we are pretty much doomed to failure when attempting to address our troubles. This message felt so urgent that tackling it, despite not having sufficient space to do so, seemed valid. Because continuing to look at the world through a linear, logo-centric, dualistic lens feels self-defeating in this evolving world of ours. This message is, in fact, everywhere, but taking a long time to be heard. (I suspect it does not need to be heard so much as lived before Flusser’s level of consciousness is realised.) It is in the quantum philosophy of Karen Barad (2007). It’s in Capri and Luisi’s systems theory. It’s certainly recognisable in the artist’s desire to oust logic and rationality in favour of the erotic, no matter how naive and half-baked that desire can at times seem. Had I read McGilchrist’s 2009 The Master and His Emissary when writing my essay, I would have recognised the same message in his study of left-hemisphere brain dominance in Western culture, despite his concerns about the I/thou relationship being replaced forever by I/it. It’s in Latour’s (1993) peevish sounding, but often astute, elongated dismissal of philosophies devoted to understanding ‘the moderns’. I see the urgent desire to realise this new level of consciousness wherever I look. And yet, aphoristic certainties claiming all that IS and all that OUGHT through outdated modes of thinking, seeing and looking loudly persist.
Although the topic and my 2020 essay could never do justice to the issues it raised, it is now clear to me that the research has been integral to my ongoing and related projects. Even before then, in 2018, I wrote the following:
When I think about the act of photography, something about it reminds me of a little boy, pre-verbal, one who is not securely attached to a primary-carer. He seems lost. He is definitely a he, not a she [or a they]. This lack of secure attachment has somehow muted him for longer than he might otherwise have been. He is at best monosyllabic. But he has found an object, perhaps commonly referred to as transitional, which he clings to, and so it stops being transitional and becomes part of him [leaving him in an unhappy stasis]. Susan Sontag (1971) refers to the fantasy of ‘the camera as phallus’ which she then transmutes to a replacement gun. This comes with a significant passage relating cameras to guns but also of the non-interventional nature of photography. I see this as further frustration for the little boy who experiences impotence and then shame, and also because the object is not organic nor malleable but metal and without a nervous system – which I think relates to the sensation of muteness and blocked-ness […] I seem to have skirted all over/around it because it’s all too hard to figure out. [But] It seems linked to what we are experiencing as a society with language, digital culture, the plethora of photographs, and the move towards AI [and more fluid language materials] doing our talking for us.
I wonder if I’m getting any closer to figuring it out…
As 2023 ends and 2024 begins, I hope our collective consciousness, understanding and perceptions will catch up a little. At the very least, it would be nice to see some more nuanced conversations about the extraordinary developments taking place in the world of image-creation. Saying that, I have met and begun discussions with some incredibly talented and interesting people these last few months. Long may that continue! And with that, Happy New Year and wishing peace to all.
Title from Flusser’s 2009 Into the Universe of Technical Images
Refs:
Barad, K.M. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.
Flusser, V. (2011). Into the universe of technical images. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (Electronic mediations, v. 32).
Latour, B. (1993). We have never been modern (C. Porter, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and His Emissary. Yale University Press: New Haven