Today, everything we do has potential to become public display, redefining the standard of "privacy". Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow us to update others on the most menial episodes of our lives (whether others want to hear about it or not). Video cameras are standard in any public area, and we don’t think much about it.
While Facebook may seem like a far cry from “BIG BROTHER” and George Orwell’s 1984, the ideas overlap in the sense that "privacy" is becoming outdated. Philip Agre’s ideas about privacy and the increase in “computer-mediated domination” allow for what Richard Woodward calls “the erosion of the wall between a private and public self”
Today, everything we do has potential to become public display, redefining the standard of "privacy". Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook allow us to update others on the most menial episodes of our lives (whether others want to hear about it or not). Video cameras are standard in any public area, and we don’t think much about it.
While Facebook may seem like a far cry from “BIG BROTHER” and George Orwell’s 1984, the ideas overlap in the sense that "privacy" is becoming outdated. Philip Agre’s ideas in 1994 about privacy and the increase in “computer-mediated domination” allow for what Richard Woodward calls “the erosion of the wall between a private and public self.” Resources like Facebook make this erosion even more pronounced.
Woodward brings up in his article about self-exploitation that there is a “need to be recorded or to record one’s self.” Exhibitionism and voyeurism have been made easy with the advances in technology and the emergence of social media websites. He calls our generation (the generation with the ability to appear before billions of people), “Warhol’s children” – “a surveillance society and a wired world of voyeurs.” I myself am guilty of looking through the mundane photos of people’s lives.
My photo series relates to our society’s need to see and be seen. I took this idea literally, taking the private and making it available to the public eye. I chose to make my photos dramatic and life-like to make the viewer feel that they are actually there, experiencing something they feel they shouldn’t. I wanted both ideas of self-exploitation and voyeurism to show through in my work, so I chose to have models reenact private events in areas easily accessible to the public.
I like your series and how it is so public it is almost absurd. It definitely drives the viewer to observe exhibitionism in other realms such as the web. When we look at FB we rarely think about how much of ourselves we are putting out there-except we expose a lot about ourselves and anyone who has a computer may find out our innermost secrets. Privacy is beginning to make me a little worried especially for finding jobs in the future. My employers could hold anything I have done on the web against me and then I would be out of luck. Beautiful pictures!
ReplyDeleteYour juxtaposition of these "menial" tasks in a public setting portrays your concept in a way that is comical, straightforward, and overall highly effective. It would be great to see you juxtapose more menial, and maybe even very private happenings in people's lives with the glare of the public eye watching over. Great work.
ReplyDeleteThe concept you brought up of how everything today is a public display is a striking point. People are posting more and more mundane, private events of their lives on facebook. Privacy is in a process of change as people expose themselves more each day. Your photo set really reflects this idea, especially the photo of the woman shaving. It really struck me as peculiar, yet brought home the point of what is too far?
ReplyDeleteA number of these are very successful and we urge you to expand the series by photographing more individuals doing private things in spaces that look more public. We suggest removing the images that are visually confusing, adding new people then reorganizing each person into a sequence that conveys time passing and creates a rhythm.
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