Cyber fantasy: exploring image culture, obsolescence, and the digital realm through photography, digital collage, and installation
Abstract
The exhibition and concepts of Cyber Fantasy challenge the borders of both the frame and the screen by digitizing and manipulating the traditional still life to further investigate photography's place in such a cyber world. The title derives from contextualizing the definitions: "cyber" meaning of or relating to computers, typically to one of the technology domains named with the combining form cyber-, as cyberterrorism, cyberwarfare, or cyberattack: and "fantasy" meaning imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained. I think of myself as optimistic about technological progress, curious about an ever changing physical and digital world of images, despite an inevitable anxiety caused by it. According to the philosophical writings of Vilem Flusser, as our current image culture becomes increasingly saturated, images have come to serve the same purpose as linear texts: that is, to distribute information, record history, and express language1. There now exists a repeated, infinite feedback loop between image makers and image consumers. This rise in media consumption as well as the rise of digital technology leaves us with a mental and emotional phenomenon that feels very human despite lacking the same intimacy as verbal communication. Subsequently, the internet has developed itself as both a place of permanence and ever-flowing, abundant information. All of this accounted for, this series questions where photography stands and how an image maker can quantify meaning within a space where images exist so abundantly. By combining themes of mortality with themes of excess and referencing the symbolism and iconography of Vanitas and Dutch still life, this series explores the overlaps between the obsolescence of technology, and the consequential state of photography in a highly saturated image culture. This cross-examination establishes the relationship between the digital and the temporary. Despite the almost universal use of digital tools as cosmetic tools for photographs, this series asks how those digital tools can be used as an extension of the hand to be used as a means to make art. By including my own hands as the artist to interact with my arrangements, I aim to reference myself as a creator of photographs while solving my relationship with the impermanence of photography and the internet.
Degree
M.F.A.