creativity/machine

Jeff of This Public Address responds to some of my recent thoughts on vernacular creativity in photography. He says:

I really must disagree with the idea that the philosophy on this non photography site is well developed. Actually, I find it rather naive. Having ?no rules? actually suggests the most difficult to adhere to rule of all?the rule of novelty?or, at the very least, the most counter-intuitive rule possible for artistic practice? that no human involvement is desirable. Disinterested artistic practice is a myth. Without interest, it isn?t art.

I think I actually kind of agree with some of this argument - that’s why I have such reservations about the lomography.com rhetoric, which has so many aesthetic rules, or rules of aesthetic practice, and yet claims to be a kind of “non-photography”. Maybe what we are looking at when there is an overt philosophy of ‘non-photography’ at work is actually better framed as ‘anti-photograpy’ - a politics of refusal which, like anti-fashion (as opposed to being unfashionable) nevertheless is closely engaged with, and demonstrates a knowledge of, the photographic canon, the avant-garde, and so on.

On the other hand:

The closest thing to ?street non-photography? I can think of comes from Chris Sullivan. The Journal of the Public Domain consists of objects found on the street. It neither invites, nor needs, any coherent philosophy. There is a difference between an organizing principle and a philosophy?trashlog has an organizing principle somewhat like Chris?s, and it seems to avoid any ?developed philosophy? as well. In both cases, human involvement (in selection at least) is readily apparent and needs no apology. Humans have notions and they almost always preconceive them. The idea of photography without preconceived notions is. to me, so much bullshit.

I like the work on both of these sites (and my favourite photolog Satan’s Laundromat is another example). But I think Jeff’s statements about them reveal where we part ways - I am familiar with this kind of unexplained, apparent “open” style of framing creative work from experimental and contemporary art music. The thing is, the artworld isn’t where my priorities lie.

I see nothing wrong in a “philosophy” that might promote a style of amateur photography that may or may not result in “art”, but that might enable people to move beyond both formulaic representation and slavish aspirations to professional standards; and therefore to engage more directly with and document, say, the architecture or everyday movement of people in their city…but then again, these are all issues I am still, and probably forever will be, thinking through.

And I’m mainly glad to see others are interested in the same issues.

DFILM is a software tool that enables you to create short animated films online…including writing your own dialogue, within four set narrative structures.

Also, go play at NOISE_UP_THE_SUBURBS - thanks to cnwb, who has more thoughts on post-dance bedroom musicians at his blog.

A busy few weeks here–on Friday we had a visit from Nick Couldry, who gave a seminar on the topics of citizenship, culture and the (im)possibility of connectedness to a ‘public sphere’. I’ve liked Nick’s quite particular approach to the key issues in cultural studies ever since I came across his provocative book Inside Culture, so it was good to meet him, and the discussion was good and lively–a good old-fashioned academic stoush. I’ve only just discovered that he also has an interesting take on the possible articulations between Actor Network Theory and media studies–maybe more on that later.

From Wednesday until Easter, I’m one of six fortunate people participating in a ten-day Digital Storytelling Workshop with UK social documentary photographer and Digital Storyteller Daniel Meadows. I’m expecting challenges, Eureka moments and a lot of insight into how amateur creativity does, can and (maybe even) should work. And I’ll blog the experience and the results.

Private and Public: portraits of pedestrians at Marble Arch by Simon Hogsberg.

other people’s stories

Interesting street images and a developed philosophy of vernacular creativity at this website. As I develop a kind of relational taxonomy of the new ‘amateurism’, I’ve been struck by the pervasiveness of this kind of neo-punk, militant DIY, determinedly lo-fi ethic and aesthetic. Example:

While making street photos, non-photography was formed. non-p is the concept of taking energy as far as possible, and with no regards to excellency. it is about making pictures while being free of the photographer’s extra cargo of filters, stylish lenses and other expensive equipment. the non-photographer’s main tools are enthusiasm, an open mind and hopefully some creativity. more so, non-p has no use for books (too boring) or calculations (too calculated). for the most part, I make street photos, which is about recording the natural pace of the street life “as is”, without any interference on my part. No pre-planning is involved. I have my cameras (Minolta SRT 101 and an un-sophisticated digital camera) along with me at all times

The lomography movement adds to this a fetish for cheap, retro plastic…

DIY culture as niche market: ReadyMade: A magazine for people who like to make stuff

I’m lovin’ the art at Lope, found using stumbleupon, which is my new favourite websurfing tool, and which, along with blogging, is the only kind of social networking technology I’m interested in using. Found that via Jill Walker.

This week I have been trying to explain to my students how empowering (for themselves and others) critical thinking, rather than criticism can be.

This has been made more than usually difficult because the course is about popular music, and the dominant mode of engagement with it in discourse is evaluative (who has or hasn’t sold out; whose music is meaningful; things that are/are not crap…all familiar tropes in music criticism, both vernacular and institutionalized). Nothing wrong with that in itself, and we all do it–at least I cannot claim otherwise. Except that criticism often does little more than reflect the socially embedded value systems of the critic (unless the critic is very, very, self-aware and reflexive); and criticism on the basis of aesthetic or even political value often works to reinforce the imbalance of cultural agency and authority that we should be problematizing. More pragmatically, such criticism doesn’t help my students to think critically about the relationships between music, culture, society, everyday life and cultural agency in specific contexts.

But Anne has inspired me this morning, not only as a teacher, but also as a research student.

Anne starts with a quote from Francis Bacon in which he says that critical thinking involves:

having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things ? and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and being a man [sic] that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture.

Anne goes on to add:

By acknowledging our own contexts and making a genuine effort to understand and accomodate other paradigms and problematics, we are unable to pretend that our understandings (and technologies) are value-free or unrelated to broader relations of culture, power and history.

And that, I believe, is our responsibility and our challenge…

The 25th of April is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.