[iDC] Introduction and Blinks & Buttons

[sascha]

Dear iDClers –


some time ago, Trebor kindly invited me here and asked me to  
introduce myself and my work.

I'm Sascha Pohflepp, currently based in Berlin, where I spent the  
last couple of years at the University of the Arts' (UDK) visual  
communication department (some of the work from that time can be  
found at http://www.pohflepp.com). I also frequently contribute to  
the blog We-Make-Money-Not-Art.com and occasionally work with the  
Mediamatic foundation in Amsterdam.


My most recent work is a two-fold thesis project, titled "Between  
Blinks & Buttons" (http://www.blinksandbuttons.net). It is a try to  
look at photography as an increasingly connected process and the  
implications which arise from that – both for the individual but also  
for the process of remembering and the camera as an object in itself.  
Quoting from the introduction:

"Photography has become a networked process. It no longer ends with  
pasting putting prints into an album. Instead, making them public  
through services like Flickr is rapidly becoming one of the main ways  
how we treat our visual memories. The photographic process extends  
from preserving a moment to an act of telecommunication, with  
numerous implications on how we perceive reality, how we make our  
memories and how we create a narrative from it.

The camera itself has become a networked object and through the  
fusion of the snapshot-camera and the mobile phone, this object will  
even become more part of our everyday lives. Cameras always have been  
recorders for their contexts, essentially equipped with a light  
sensor to capture a visual representation and a pressure sensor for  
the person who decides which moment will be saved – the button.  
Furthermore, digital photos come with a great amount of data attached  
to them as so-called EXIF-tags. These include a multitude of precise  
information about technical aspects of the shot, the make of the  
camera, how it was held and when the image was taken.

For almost any given moment since early 2004, it is possible to find  
a photo on the web which was taken in the exact same second. For  
every of my photos that I myself have a memory of and an emotional  
connection to, I can see someone else's moment. I can see what  
happened in another part of the world while I was doing what I  
remember when I see it. In that sense, cameras become networked  
buttons that create a link between two people through the simple fact  
that they did the same thing simultaneously: press a button. The  
cameras create a visual trace of it, with time as a reference."


This resulted in two installations – firstly "Blinks", a prism  
sitting on a kind of light-table that actually refracts the ray of  
time which metaphorically runs through every photo into all the other  
moments that had been simultaneously captured in various places all  
over the world.

Secondly, "Buttons", a camera which intentionally boils down the  
photographic apparatus to its essential button. Once this button has  
been pressed, no picture is taken (the person will remember the  
moment, though), but a networked device inside starts to look for  
photos from that very same second. It might take some time, but  
eventually, a photo will show up on the camera's display.

Interestingly, in both pieces, the photos never feel random since the  
user shares a moment with that other person who took the photo. At a  
recent presentation, someone called the whole process "momentography"  
which I found very fitting and beautiful. Please feel free to let me  
know what you think of all this, the website mentioned above also has  
some more information and videos.




Looking forward to more inspiring threads on this list –
Sascha