The More You See The Less You Know

I like to think of myself as a pretty up to date guy with this technology stuff but sometimes it just seems like there is so much to keep track of. For Christmas my aunt gave my family a digital picture frame and it kind of scared me. Film was like cool in the twentieth century and now I suppose paper photographs are cruising into extinction as we approach 2010. The iPhone will dramatically change the way we look at pictures. With instant easy access to a high quality visual when will we be showing clients, editors and curators our work on our iPhones? Who wants to spend the time and money on a portfolio and having to constantly be updating your book printing new work and lugging those heavy things all over the city? And what will be the first gallery to say goodbye to the white wall and hello to the floor to ceiling LCD screen? And it wont run them out of business because all they have to do now is sell the digital file to Mr. Millionaire and he can play the art on his LCD screen at home or the boat. So many artists these days work in a wide range of mediums that perhaps this will actually change the way art is made, shit, fashion and art merged a while ago, so why can't video, sculpture, performance, photography, poetry, painting, fucking, fighting, falling in love, etc etc all somehow end up on that LCD screen.

All of this innovation allows greater and greater accessibility, almost instantaneity. Images are being looked at with a new found speed and quickness that can not possibly allow for seroious reflection or contemplation. While it is wonderful to have such great access to all of the images out there, how much are we letting those images sink in? Instead of thinking about the image, we on to the next one and the one after that. We never stop looking. But when do we stop to think? What is the point of even looking if we do allow ourselves to react on what we have seen? The never ending attack ranging from Flickr to the 6 O'Clock news is sure to have a devastating effect on how we see and perceive, not only the world, but ourselves and how we fit into this world. It also scares me that the images made in the future will somehow lack intelligence and visual richness as by-products of the visual vocabulary they grew up with. As technology and the art world evolve I pray we do not lose our sensitivity to the image and become numb to the potential impact an image can have. While Sternfeld was making American Prospects he could only afford to shoot two sheets of film a day. Two shots! Now that is serious looking and thinking, and, today, unheard of.