What compels us to photography everything, everywhere, and all at once?
Examining Artie Vierkant’s THE IMAGE OBJECT POST-INTERNET (2010)
I began by looking at and defining words that stood out as being important, especially concerning the title of Vierkant’s essay…
IMAGE…
IMAGE (n): “…a representation of the external form of a person or thing in art” (Oxford).
Evocation / to evoke
Synonyms: likeness, Resemblance, depiction, representation, bust, portrait, artists interpretation.
(v): “… Make a representation of the external form of…”
Latin: IMAGO
VISUALIZATION, PICTOGRAMS.
(n): “… The general impression That a person, organization, or product presents to the public“ (Oxford). “…public perception, conception, impression; persona; mask.”
(n): “…an optical appearance or counterpart produced by light or other radiation from an object reflected in a mirror or refracted through the lens.”
Reflection, echo.
(n): “… Invisible impression obtain by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other device, or displayed on a computer or video screen.”
M-W: “… Visual representation of something; Such as: (1): Likeness of an object produced on a photographic material; (2): A picture produced on our electronic display (Such as a TV or a computer screen).”
Dictionary.com: “… Image, icon, idle, referred to material representations of persons or things. An image is a representation as in a statue or FG, and is sometimes regarded as an object of worship (Image of a Saint).
2D: Drawing, painting, photograph, print, video, film… 3D: Carving, sculpture, installation.
SELF-IMAGE…
Is the personal view, for mental picture, that we have of ourselves. It is an ‘Internal dictionary’ That describes the characteristics of the self, including such things as intelligent, beautiful, ugly, talented, selfish, and kind, etc. These characteristics form a collective representation of our assets (strengths) and liabilities (weaknesses) as we see them.
OBJECT (THING)…
(n): “… Material thing that can be seen and touched. / “… A person or a thing to which a specified action or feeling is directed” (Oxford).
“… Anything that is visible or tangible, and is relatively stable in form“ (Dictionary.com).
“ Real world objects: your dog, desk, pen, TV, bicycle. Real world, objects, share two characteristics: They all have state and behaviour.
Ask > what possible states can this object be in? What possible behaviours can this object perform?
DOG states: name, colour, breed, hungry…
DOG behaviours: barking, fetch, wagging tail…
BICYCLE states: current gear, speed, pedal…
BICYCLE behaviours: changing gear, applying brakes…
LAMP states: on / off…
LAMP behaviours: turn on, turn off, dim…
RADIO states: on, off, volume, current station…
RADIO behaviours: turn on, turn off, increase volume, decrease volume, seek, scan, tune, record…
THING (n): “…a solid thing that you can hold, touch, or see but that is not alive. INANIMATE OBJECT. (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).