“I am an eye. A mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you a world the way only I can see it. My way leads towards a fresh perception of the world. Thus, I explain in a new way the world unknown to you.”
Vertov, D. [in] Berger, J. (1972; 17)
Chompoo Baritone
In Steph’s pop-up lecture on the Unseen and Overlooked she mentioned the following practitioner in passing: Chompoo Baritone. I wasn’t aware of their practice so find it amusing that one of the methods of editing, I deployed this week (and subsequent decision that it was a too literal approach to the commentary I am making) is very reminiscent of their work, in the usage of Instagram the app being used as a border around a section of the image. Looking at their series #Slowlife (2015) which pokes fun at the aspirational influencers, that Instagram is but a cropped view into the life of another and that real life is messy, not a curated aesthetic. I suppose this is not dissimiliar to my current WIP which seeks to comment on how the mass adoption of the smart phone has affected human relationships, producing couples who are in themselves an authentic lie, spending most of their time hunting for the perfect ‘aspirational’ couple selfie, rather than observing the world around them, or even each other, solely reliant on the mechanical eye of the camera lens on the devices being used as a means of observing.
Figure 2 Baritone, C. (2015) Display Methods From #Slowlife
Work in Progress
“It is by looking at a screen — a flat, rectangular surface positioned at some distance from the eyes — that the user experiences the illusion of navigating through virtual spaces, of being physically present somewhere else or of being hailed by the computer itself.”
Manovitch, L. (1995; 1)
The feedback I received during the webinar this week, was a perhaps politer version to how I felt about the development of my images, in that they could see potential development, and my intentions. I was having a real imposter moment on the direction my WIP should go, as I felt that Week 4’s stylistic edit of hecticness would lose it’s impact in a series of similiar images. Due to this, I decided I would look at placing my images literally within the context I am commenting on (predominantly on Instagram relationships), however I feel the outcomes are a bit too literal and do not leave enough ambiguity on the reading to the viewer which is my current intention.
References
Figures
Figure 1 Baritone, C. (2015) From #Slowlife. [Online] Available from: https://mymodernmet.com/chompoo-baritone-slowlife/ [Accessed 28/02/2020]
Figure 2 Baritone, C. (2015) Display Methods From #Slowlife. [Online] Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/-28IeftOto/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading [Accessed 28/02/2020]
Figure 3 Murray, J. (2020) WIP an Authentic Lie?
Figure 4 Murray, J. (2020) WIP an Authentic Lie?
Bibliography
Manovitch, L. (1995) An Archeology of a Computer Screen. [in] Kunstforum International. Germany, 1995; NewMediaTopia. Moscow, Soros Center for the Contemporary Art, 1995. pg 1. [Online] Available from: http://manovich.net/content/04-projects/011-archeology-of-a-computer-screen/09_article_1995.pdf [Accessed 27/02/2020]
Vertov, D. (1929) The Man with the Movie Camera. [in] Berger, J. (1972) Ways of Seeing. pg 17. London; Penguin.
Jasmine Murray Photography 
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