I have to admit that I've never conceived of the camera as a device for capturing fleeting moments, but rather a tool used to carefully compose the world. Holding a cruddy cell phone camera above your head to get a blurry, badly lit shot doesn't fit the bill.
Janine Falcon
· 11 months ago
Actually, a photo like this was one of my favourite photos of the day -- it's the new millenium's version of waving a bic lighter in tribute.
I never use my cel camera, by the way. I love the photo for its context and its... absurdity, really.
joanne mcneil
· 11 months ago
I also enjoy the photo as it so embodies the tech-savvy of our new commander-in-chief. But the video footage is a little disturbing. The cameras never go down. It's hard to imagine those waiting for the perfect photo enjoyed his speech (and such a great one!) with full attention
José Carrilho
· 11 months ago
Hi,
To use a cell camera more or less also has to do a bit with our society culture. Lets not forget that when cells with cameras started to appear, the japanese market was more targeted than other ones. With globalization, the differences between countries and thus cultures, tends to fade. With the advent of flexible screens we'll be watching videos on t-shirts, cereal boxes and so on. Heck ! One may even upload a video from the cell to the t-shirt :-)
Kind regards,
José
R J Keefe
· 10 months ago
Julie Delpy's Marion voice-overs about this in "2 Days in Paris," when she, the professional photographer, complains about her boyfriend's incessant shutterbugging in Venice, where she herself declined to take pictures, knowing that it would interfere with her experience of the city to do so. To take a picture is to take yourself out of the picture.
Timmy
· 10 months ago
In the picture above, there are a lot people using cell phones.
Timmy
· 10 months ago
In the picture above, there are a lot of people using cell phones.
James
· 10 months ago
Actually, I see many more people in the photo above using compact cameras rather than cell phones. Just look at the size of the screens —they can't all have iPhones, can they?— and the way they're holding them. No that it negates your observation about cell cameras, but...
Timmy
· 10 months ago
James is right. In the picture above, there are a lot of people using devices to capture video and, no doubt, still photos.
Phyllis
· 10 months ago
I see many video/photo-capturing devices in the picture, as well! It's interesting to see that there are many video/photo-capturing devices in the picture above.
yenayer
· 10 months ago
My english is not very good, so i paste this passage from a long article of Slavoj Zizek
Against this background, one is tempted to supplement the fashionable notion of "interactivity," with its shadowy and much more uncanny supplement/double, the notion of "interpassivity." That is to say, it is commonplace to emphasize how, with new electronic media, the passive consumption of a text or a work of art is over: I no longer merely stare at the screen, I increasingly interact with it, entering into a dialogic relationship with it (from choosing the programs, through participating in debates in a Virtual Community, to directly determining the outcome of the plot in so-called "interactive narratives"). Those who praise the democratic potential of new media, generally focus on precisely these features: on how cyberspace opens up the possibility for the large majority of people to break out of the role of the passive observer following the spectacle staged by others, and to participate actively not only in the spectacle, but more and more in establishing the very rules of the spectacle… Is, however, the other side of this interactivity not interpassivity? Is the necessary obverse of my interacting with the object instead of just passively following the show, not the situation in which the object itself takes from me, deprives me of, my own passive reaction of satisfaction (or mourning or laughter), so that is is the object itself which "enjoys the show" instead of me, relieving me of the superego duty to enjoy myself… Do we not witness "interpassivity" in a great number of today's publicity spots or posters which, as it were, passively enjoy the product instead of us ? (Coke cans containing the inscription "Ooh!Ooh! What taste!", emulate in advance the ideal customer's reaction.) Another strange phenomenon brings us closer to the heart of the matter: almost every VCR aficionado who compulsively records hundreds of movies (myself among them), is well aware that the immediate effect of owning a VCR, is that one effectively watches less films than in the good old days of a simple TV set without a VCR; one never has time for TV, so, instead of losing a precious evening, one simply tapes the film and stores it for a future viewing (for which, of course, there is almost never time…). So, although I do not actually watch films, the very awareness that the films I love are stored in my video library gives me a profound satisfaction and, occasionally, enables me to simply relax and indulge in the exquisite art of far'niente — as if the VCR is in a way watching them for me, in my place… VCR stands here for the "big Other," for the medium of symbolic registration.
Marsha
· 8 months ago
Hey! What happened to Timmy's comments? This is Web 2.0! Everyone's voice counts! Get hip and urbane and quit deleting posts!
Edward
· 8 months ago
I totally agree with Marsha! Get hip and urbane and quit deleting posts!
Frank
· 8 months ago
Ed and Marsha are right! This is Web 2.0! Stop deleting posts!
Wendy
· 8 months ago
Does this sitet delete posts? Why would this sight delete posts? If this site deletes posts, that is wrong, because this is Web 2.0 and, if you're hip and urbane, you wouldn't delete posts. I agree with Marsha, Ed, and Frank. Don't delete posts!
All Comments
I never use my cel camera, by the way. I love the photo for its context and its... absurdity, really.
To use a cell camera more or less also has to do a bit with our society culture.
Lets not forget that when cells with cameras started to appear, the japanese market was more targeted than other ones.
With globalization, the differences between countries and thus cultures, tends to fade.
With the advent of flexible screens we'll be watching videos on t-shirts, cereal boxes and so on.
Heck ! One may even upload a video from the cell to the t-shirt :-)
Kind regards,
José
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/zizek/zizek-the-inte...
Interpassivity
Against this background, one is tempted to supplement the fashionable notion of "interactivity," with its shadowy and much more uncanny supplement/double, the notion of "interpassivity." That is to say, it is commonplace to emphasize how, with new electronic media, the passive consumption of a text or a work of art is over: I no longer merely stare at the screen, I increasingly interact with it, entering into a dialogic relationship with it (from choosing the programs, through participating in debates in a Virtual Community, to directly determining the outcome of the plot in so-called "interactive narratives"). Those who praise the democratic potential of new media, generally focus on precisely these features: on how cyberspace opens up the possibility for the large majority of people to break out of the role of the passive observer following the spectacle staged by others, and to participate actively not only in the spectacle, but more and more in establishing the very rules of the spectacle… Is, however, the other side of this interactivity not interpassivity? Is the necessary obverse of my interacting with the object instead of just passively following the show, not the situation in which the object itself takes from me, deprives me of, my own passive reaction of satisfaction (or mourning or laughter), so that is is the object itself which "enjoys the show" instead of me, relieving me of the superego duty to enjoy myself… Do we not witness "interpassivity" in a great number of today's publicity spots or posters which, as it were, passively enjoy the product instead of us ? (Coke cans containing the inscription "Ooh!Ooh! What taste!", emulate in advance the ideal customer's reaction.) Another strange phenomenon brings us closer to the heart of the matter: almost every VCR aficionado who compulsively records hundreds of movies (myself among them), is well aware that the immediate effect of owning a VCR, is that one effectively watches less films than in the good old days of a simple TV set without a VCR; one never has time for TV, so, instead of losing a precious evening, one simply tapes the film and stores it for a future viewing (for which, of course, there is almost never time…). So, although I do not actually watch films, the very awareness that the films I love are stored in my video library gives me a profound satisfaction and, occasionally, enables me to simply relax and indulge in the exquisite art of far'niente — as if the VCR is in a way watching them for me, in my place… VCR stands here for the "big Other," for the medium of symbolic registration.