Vantage Points by Ron Burnett

Nature and Artifice in Image Worlds

· Technology is ever-present in modern society

· Images are of paramount importance in contemporary society
- it is near impossible to discuss “the social construction of meaning and messages without reference to images as sites of communication, miscommunication, mediation and intelligence”

· The distinction between natural and synthetic worlds is rapidly deteriorating

· Images are no longer stagnant representations, rather they capture an entire event and the emotions surrounding an event

· Photographer Jeff Wall suggested that: “Images represent a technological intelligence that shifts the ways humans see themselves, from individuals to hybrid personae, where identity no longer resides in one particular place, object or person.”
- an image has the capacity to alter one’s perspective of reality and how they see themselves in reality.

· An image is no longer divorced from the media or social contexts, for example: images and video clips accompany current affairs on the news; reporters often describe such affairs by saying “a plane has been hijacked” rather than saying “this is an image of a plane being hijacked”

· Even though images are of a much smaller scale than events themselves they are beginning to approximate the experience of being there, thus marginalizing the emotions evoked by being in the presence of the event first hand.
- images are replacing real life occurrences and are substituting one’s empathy with the actual experience.

· A loss of consistency between the everyday experience and images and sounds proves detrimental to the integrity of the event
- i.e. the phenomenon/grandeur of an event cannot be translated purely via visual representation

· The challenge for a viewer is not to observe images passively but determine connections that make the experiences personal

· The experience of viewing is about the struggle between proximity and distance
- viewers set themselves away from the screen to create distance, yet by doing so they allow themselves to take in the entirety of the screen; and immerse themselves fully in the images.

· However, video games can be seen as an intermediate step between conventional viewing and total immersion (by ‘total immersion’ I mean a complete absence of any mediation.

· Closeness vs. distance is a struggle that has always existed in storytelling
- the role of the story teller is to “weave language, images and sounds into a magical space that listeners or spectators can move into and experience” (Walton 1990)

· Films encourage this intense connection between spectator and image yet sustain distance between the two HOWEVER this segregation is being collapsed by the exploration of virtual reality, 3D and 4D cinema scopes.

· Images the capture suffering circumstances have this duality of closeness and distance by exhibiting the frailty of communication as well as its potency
- i.e. The significance of images portraying the events of 9/11cannot be overstated however, the event extends beyond the border of an image – into the streets, communities, peoples homes, thoughts and individuals’ inner turmoil.