VIRTUAL TECHNOLOGY V. AUTHENTIC MATERIALITY
I cant get the idea out of my head that I need to justify (to myself) why drawing, specifically pencil on paper might be a valid means of visual art today. I imagine it lies in the sphere of virtual technology image versus authentic materiality. We are inundated with fast paced technological image whenever we look, TV at home, advertising boards on the street, plasma screens in Dr’s, train stations and airports, I find myself looking away most of the time. I first heard the term schizophrenic society about 10 years ago, Tony Ousler had a very good show at the Lisson gallery, and he was dealing with the media image, he described the effect of technology in the way we consume it as schizophrenic inducing. I have since heard the term used again more recently. The school I send my kids to recommend no TV for children until the age of 14, they believe, and there is substantial evidence to back it up, that it detrimentally effects the way children develop their imagination. We have lent our telly to a friend, and I don’t miss it a bit, infact I feel empowered without it. I have a computer which I would be lost without (very handy for researching, social networking and watching DVD’s), but I strongly feel that there is too much technology around to the decline of the natural, healthy, authentic ‘experience’. We need a balance. So even though I’m interested in photography, especially the photo-shopped kind, which I might dabble at. I choose to work predominately with pencil on paper, I find it a healthy experience, I guess I would like to encourage this healthy or ‘authentic’ experience in the world around me. I might find an answer with the artist Dan Hays. In his essay ‘Painting in the light of Digital Reproduction’ he suggests painting a digital image exposes the flaws in the digital image, this is something that I want to reflect on. He also talks about landscape painting as a paradoxical space. http://culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/article/view/86/63
