Project 1

For the Poor Image project I had many ideas. After much deliberation I decided to combine two of them. I used two images: one of a turkey vulture and one of a Snellen chart. I wanted to see how the same process would change an image versus text. My method was to reverse the image using Microsoft Word, display it on my computer monitor, take a photo of it using my phone camera, and email it from my phone back to my computer where I displayed and flipped it again.

While there were more technologically advanced ways on doing this project which may have resulted in my anticipated effect, I like the idea of my method being something that anyone can do simply with a Microsoft subscription and a camera. Anyone could degrade an image of their own in the way I did mine.

My inspiration was Steyerl's statement "[the poor] image [is] liberated from vaults of cinemas and archives and thrust into digital uncertainty” (p.1). The Snellen chart is an image that rarely exists outside a specific space and while many iterations of it are easily accessible on Google, it not something that is used in art. My photo does not exist anywhere except in my photos library.  By using both images in this project I have taken them from a space that was stable and now made them into something less so. They are still recognizable, but their purpose has changed which is summed up by Steyerl. These images are “illicit fifth generation bastards of the original image” (p. 1). 

The first image I worked with was the Snellen chart, which optometrists use to test eyesight. I found the image using a Google search. I was hoping that by reversing the image the text would become smudged and unreadable. However, the only changes to the image were caused by taking a photo of it on the monitor and reducing the image size when emailing. Some interesting colours and patterns appeared, mostly affecting the outside of the image. The letters did not change much although the last two lines were consumed by the patterns.

The second image was of a turkey vulture that I took myself. Because my experiment with text did not work the way I hoped, I wanted to see if a photo would be affected differently. Ultimately, the reversing did little to affect the image and again it was the camera and email that caused the most changes. Parts of the body and feathers of the vulture lightened completely leaving white splotches, the background developed a grid-like pattern and colours appeared once the image began to lighten.