I found the chapter: growing up tethered particularly interesting. Its about a study done in a east coast high school about the interactions students have with each other and text messaging. A "text" has become so main stream that lots of people prefer to "text" versus a phone call or face to face interactions. This section also brings up the questioning of the change in adolescents development of "independence". If one is always capable of getting hold of a parent or another important individual then do they ever learn to depend on themselves? I thought this was a particularly interesting section which made me really wonder. Is anyone truly independent anymore? I can really sympathize with both parts of the argument, its really valuable to always be able to connect with someone at any given time, though, being able to truly depend on yourself is a human instant thats so primal it should be put as more of a priority for human development than it seems to be in our current society. At least, I personally have a desire to trust that I could depend on myself for survival if I really needed to, but the scary thing is in a lot of circumstances, I probably couldn't.
All of these readings file down to be all about the change in human interaction. This relates to my project in a very interesting light. In my series, I'm trying bring back the human interaction thats only experiences when individuals are in the same place and sensitive enough to really notice the nuances of the other individual's presence. Well, i'm trying to translate what one would feel internally about another individual's energy or presence into something you can visually notice in a photograph. At least more of a dramatic expression of their presence.
I've been working on crafting my 10 images in photoshop to clear up any odd lighting/ color problems and such, but overall staying pretty true to the original scene. I can't wait to print them!
I never thought of how relating to each other through technology could change the way we relate to each other in general. It's an interesting and completely feasible notion that, as is the natural course of learning and teaching, an entire generation could be brought up communicating this way and therefore teach their children the same. A frightening concept, if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteYour project, with its emphasis on physical presence, almost seems to be contrary to the physical distance between people right now. It's referred to as co-presence and now recognized as an aspect of lens-based media work to be critiqued, discussed and recognized.
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