urban ku # 67 ~ 'the flow'
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 08:30AM 
Layer upon layer of meaning • click to embiggenIt has been stated, regarding photography, that, in the 'digital age', analog is about traces, digital is about flow.
This notion popped into my head last evening as I was stroking, caressing and viewing (an analog experience) a new batch of photo books which arrived in the mail over the past few days. Two of the books - Burtynsky's China and Breuer's Poles - are particularly exceptional books.
Both create worlds which just suck you in and hold you in an embrace that's seductive and intriguing. Neither my hands nor my eyes wanted to let go. Most pictures had the quality of an essay - my mind could construct paragraphs and paragraphs as the pictures took me through layer upon layer of connections. The descriptors such as, deep, complex, rich, detailed come to mind, not just to convey the visual character of the pictures, but their meaning as well.
As I was waltzing to the music on this substrata of pictures, it occurred to me that I was dancing in a manner that I rarely, if ever, do when I'm connected to 'the flow' of photography on the digital highway.
Maybe it's a generational thing - I have no real emotional connection to a screen (monitor) and, for the most part, I want to disconnected from the flow of information (or disinformation) which can all too readily suck you in and drag you under in a soup of mind-numbing overload of (in this case) pictures.
On the other hand, I must admit that I am a contributor of sorts to 'the flow'. Blogging is certainly about a constant flow of stuff. It makes me wonder what my following would be if I only posted once a week - one picture and a more lengthy essay. Something which requires that you slow down, observe and contemplate.
It seems to me that we live in a culture which encourages the unthinking consumption rather than the thoughtful engagement of pictures. In fact, I think that the very existence of our consumer culture is dependent upon that notion.
What to do? What to do?
Any ideas?
gravitas et nugalis
Featured Comments: Just in case you didn't catch the Reference posted by Jason Thompson - Consumption Vs. Engagement
Tim Atherton also posted this link on his thoughts re: Traces
Reader Comments (3)
Yes, I caught the trace and flow thing (partly due to my own photographic interest in traces) and it resonated with a whole bunch of things that I've been thinking about for a good while now (oh, where are those grants when you need them...)
http://photo-muse.blogspot.com/2007/02/traces.html
...That photography since its inception has always had some kind of ambiguous relationship with memory. That memory has always required forgetting - often a sort of active forgetting - for it to function. Memory doesn't work without the possibility of forgetting.
That the huge flow of digital data is not as allowing of this kind of forgetting required by memory
...From before Levy's trace and flow statement - “Bits are meant to flow, while atoms have a strange habit of falling victim to gravity and time”
What to do? Lead, and only by example. Like your blog for instance, presenting alternatives.
I,m an appreciative, daily visitor for sure!
Mark,
You probably could slow down a bit and not loose that many eyeballs. Hard to say how many without a daily entry, but what about going to every other day, or Monday/Wednesday/Friday? How important are the stats, anyway?
As I've said before, I don't think I'm very unusual in not spending much time with any one online image. I can spend a long time with books, & gallery/museum shows (I probably spent 10 minutes poring over the details in JW's "An Eviction" there is so much to look at) but the video screen doesn't present the same detail, so why bother spend the time? As a substitute for this quality, we get the flow/quantity of the web.