Doubledeath--the very presence of the absent

Abstract

The notion of doubledeath, as an idea to generate work, can be seen as both an ironic reflection on the medium of photography and a critical attempt to comment on contemporary culture. In short, the inherent characteristics of the photographic medium and its function within society are combined. Photography embodies both death and the beginning of something autonomous and new in the very moment of the picture-taking process. A photograph is a mere simulation of what was once there, in front of the lens, transformed onto photographic paper. It then opens up a whole range of new possibilities to the viewer. The photograph's almost life-like appearance informs the photographic myth that is the idea that a photograph provides evidence of absolute truth. This characteristic together with the possibility of manipulating and altering a photograph has been continuously exploited by mass media to influence, make and guide our perceptions towards reality. These characteristics of image-making have left the borders between fiction and fact blurred. Living in a world of over-mediation it is hard to escape and find one's way around in this melting pot of the various realities suggested. Reality today is informed by the present trace of an absent original. When this is recorded photographically, it could be described as a doubledeath. Both this research documentation and the studio work are social comments on contemporary life and artmaking. Where photographs record scenes from life informed by visual simulation (the presence of the absent) the notion of doubledeath becomes most obvious. Moreover, they reflect contemporary culture, addressing and investigating concerns fueled by today's omnipresent commodity and life-style culture, and provoking thoughts about illusion and the crises of the real. In the 21st century we interact with, acknowledge, accept or even prefer the surface over the essence of things, and real experience becomes more diluted

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

Photography and causation: Responding to Scruton's scepticism.Dawn M. Phillips - 2009 - British Journal of Aesthetics 49 (4):327-340.
Depictive Traces: On the Phenomenology of Photography.Mikael Pettersson - 2011 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 69 (2):185-196.
Against photographic deception.Edwin Martin - 1987 - Journal of Mass Media Ethics 2 (2):49 – 59.
Photographic Representation and Depiction of Temporal Extension.Jiri Benovsky - 2012 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 55 (2):194-213.
Visual culture: the reader.Jessica Evans & Stuart Hall (eds.) - 1999 - Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications in association with the Open University.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-03-05

Downloads
12 (#925,053)

6 months
1 (#1,027,696)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references