Hito Steyerl – In Defense of the Poor Image

‘The poor image is a copy in motion’  a ‘ghost of an image’ – link this to the idea of photocopying? – image becomes a trace of itself

– Avante Garde/ non commercial cinema ‘have been resurrected as poor images’ – less available officially (in cinemas etc) so shared underground/ non commercially – become poor images

This distribution of content drafts images into production – ‘users become the editors, critics, translators and (co-) authors of poor images’ – ‘poor images are thus popular images’

– Condition of images based on ‘countless transfers and reformattings’ as well as ‘countless people who cared enough to convert them over and over again’

– Redefines the value of the image – resolution/ exchange value – but also becomes possible to imagine ‘another value defined by velocity, intensity and spread’

Poor images ‘express a condition of dematerialisation’ – shared with the legacy of contemporary art and contemporary modes of semiotic production’

‘the history of conceptual art describes this dematerialisation of the art object first as a resistant move against the fetish value of visibility’ (then adapts to capitalism)

Similarly – the poor image ‘operates against the fetish value of high resolution’ ‘on the other hand this is precisely why it ends up being perfectly  integrated into an information capitalism thriving on compressed attention spans, on impression rather than immersion’

The poor image ‘constructs anonymous global networks’ – circulates and reconnects dispersed audiences

– an ‘alternate economy of images’

Poor image – loses ‘visual substance’ but creates a new aura around it’

‘No longer based on the permanence of the original but the transience of the copy’ – propelled onto new ephemeral screens

The circulation of poor images creates ‘visual bonds’ (Dziga Vertor) – links audiences together through mutual excitement

http://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/

Think about the idea of the original and the copy in relation to imagery – similarly photocopying has this effect on an original image (already a copy of itself as an object) – what is the significance of distancing an image from its original version? – this process echoes the passing on/ circulation of digital image – consider this physical movement/ distribution from person to person – provides a new immediate satisfaction – access to digital imagery instantaneous