WRITTEN RESPONSE:
Groys, B. (2021). ‘Modernity and Contemporaneity: Mechanical vs. Digital Reproduction’, The Lives of Images, Vol. 1: Repetition, Reproduction, and Circulation. New York: Aperture.
A digital computer screen consists of tiny pixel components that need a backlight to create images, which require processed through machine system operation to make it work. Therefore, seeing an appearance on the screen can be different from seeing a paper photograph. Consider a photo as the sudden capture of the light of the original object, a copy of the original. Then the same picture transforms into digital format by going through the data language translation to encode and save in the electronic devices. Is the digital photo the same as the analog photo? How about its relationship to the original? The reproduction process can be very complex in today’s age, and so do the perception of visuals.
In 1935, Walter Benjamin raised the discussion about mechanical reproduction and the relationship between the original and copied in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Philosopher and media theorist Boris Groys started writing Modernity and Contemporaneity with Benjamin’s argument and historical context. Groys stated that Benjamin’s concept of originality is “rooted in nature.” Moreover, he explained how the artist’s avant-garde response to this discussion of nature and originality. From his writing, it is evident that the cultural context and technology development have an impact on reproduction methods which further influence people’s perception of media.
However, the cultural context in our age is very different. Groys points out the complexity of nowadays reproduction mode—digital reproduction. He explains that the image file is not an image but “an effect of the visualization of the invisible image file, of the invisible data (2021, p.75).” It functions like the relationship between music scores and the music, they are not the same, but the music is a performance of the score. Hence, each time we trigger the contents to show on the screen is like a new copy that we cannot compare to the original since it is invisible. So that “digitalization turns visual arts into performing arts. (p.76)” Groys idea inspires me to explore the essence of digital data, not merely challenging the visual aspect of the computer interface but also revealing its hidden side. Therefore, I tried to deconstruct and displace the data of the webpage interface in physical form to show the invisible “score.”
Finally, digital reproduction changed our perception of content as well as our relationship with data. Different from mechanical reproduction, digital methods, especially the use of electronic devices and networks, make the viewer themselves also visible to the hidden observer. Whenever a viewer browses the internet and triggers content, their action also becomes data that feeds back to the net and becomes a reproduction of themselves and their “off-line behavior (p.78).” However, this bidirectional reproduction cannot be fully controlled by the viewer. The danger of big data and the loss of private data are always radical topics; however, Groys explains it as a return to the “supernatural,” intriguingly suggesting his argument about this unstable and uncontrollable reproduction age.
CHRISTENSEN, J. (2022). HARD COPY. [online] JULIA CHRISTENSEN.
The relationship between humans and machines constantly changes and alters the way we live in this unstable world. One small act such as uploading images to social media can be associated with an expansive network universe; or the purchasing of a newly released smartphone could open up the whole hidden world of e-product commerce and e-waste issues. The Ohio-based artist and writer Julia Christensen’s projects mainly focused on the upgrade culture and the hidden e-waste issues. In an interview with Apollo art magazine, Christensen explains the upgrade culture concept as “a sort of relentless notion that we constantly have to upgrade our electronics and media to remain relevant (2020, para. 3).” Her interest emerged because of a visit to India’s e-waste processing center. Afterward, she created a series of photographs and writing exploring different obsolescence aspects.
Hard Copy is one of the photograph series that explicitly explores the private collecting of recordable data media such as films and disks. Christensen took six photos of her friends and neighbors’ old physical recordings that are no longer accessible due to obsolescence. Compared to another photo series Technology Time which shows the devices’ components in e-waste processing, this series provides another context of obsolescence. Christensen mentioned that viewers get to see and question how these contexts “change the [object’s] economic and cultural value (para.7).” She kept the angle and focal point solid in all photo series rather than changing too much on photographic effects, which elevated their changing of contexts. This juxtaposition works effectively in the exhibition setting. In September 2020, the ArtCenter Exhibitions presented Julia Christensen’s works. In the gallery, audiences got to view all of her projects and see the relationship and contrast. The discussion about e-waste slowly branched out to private data storage and further opened up the overall argument about obsolescence.
Even though Christensen’s works mainly use photographs and installations as a medium, her approach to discussing big topics with specific perspectives is very influential. Her research on upgrade culture gradually moves from big concepts to everyday objects since she goes through this process from the beginning, the use of electronic devices in people’s lives, to the various endpoints of obsolete media. Thus, her research process inspired me to explore other aspects branches from my initial interest in computer interface and changing of digital format.
I decided to explore the loss in changing format reversely in response to Christensen’s work since data storage development is a gradual transformation from tangible to more intangible and compressed form. Add on my first 100 iterating projects, which transform real-life activity to digital data; the contextualizing project unfolds the digital media back to physical hard copy to reveal the hidden complexity of computer data and the losing function and content of interface. Just like Christensen shows people’s old obsolete media in Hard Copy, I want to discuss how people slowly get rid of physical storage without knowing the hidden complexity behind a simple computer interface and explore the interface more by analyzing them in other formats.
CLASS FEEDBACKS：
-It is impressive to see all the data behind a simple webpage in physical form and the length and exploration have gone through to replicate soft copy.
-The waveform gets hidden when folded back. And the easter egg shows hidden contents on the website. These formats make them more visible.
-Could try different methods of holding content and replicate the digital effect. (such as the tracing paper)There can be more iterations.
-The revealing of hidden code shows viewers more content and structure that they never noticed. Furthermore, it pushes the viewer to explore and see the languages once printed out.
-Think of this as a printed map of the website, and move beyond this one page. Want to see more experiments on how you translate what is on the website. Explore the whole architecture of the website visible.
-Can explore more on the front end other than just the back end.
-Physicality of the website, try to use paper size, quality, and way of flipping the material.
-Try to create an overall experience and even can have more content to reveal. Such as even showing the image’s code through a smaller envelope.