[Reading] In Defense of the Poor Image
Lol, what’s ironic is I had trouble downloading this image from the article…
A poor image is a preview, thumbnail, distributed for free, squeezed, compressed, reproduced, ripped, remixed, copied and pasted. As culture became a commodity and cinema was commercialized poor images actually made images/video/cinema/art accessible to the masses. Non-conformist and experimental visual matter disappeared from the surface into an underground of alternative archives and collections kept safe by humans. People who care enough to download and re-distribute images became co-authors. The medium of poor images is a co-created global network, a human network, distributed by word of mouth.
Here are some of my other notes:
“It transforms quality into accessibility, exhibition value into cult value, films into clips, contemplation into distraction.”
High-end/”rich” economies of film are rooted in national culture, capitalist studio production, male genius, conservative in their structure
lack of resolution = appropriation and displacement
poor image reveals the decline of experimental and non-commercial cinema
imperfect cinema = blurring the line between consumer and producer, audience and author
Users become editors, critics, translators, and (co-) authors of poor images —> popular images! For the people, people LOVE these images
Depthkit
We have our own Depthkit rig downstairs in the Media Commons. Depthkit it a software solution that captures volumetric video with a PC and depth sensors. The exported media is combined-per-pixel video files and are 3D objects at runtime in Unity.
Calibration
We have an appointment for the media commons 04/02 @ 4pm… 😈
