You may be wondering, like me, what is this odd little niche blog? Or more specifically, what niche is this?
Yes, there’s method here. Though half the fun (uh, for me at least) is figuring that out.
I’m interested in images: what constructs them, ways to think about them, how we encounter, manipulate and are manipulated by them. This blog is a porch and I’m swatting flies – noticing images, collecting glances and not-quite-so-random thoughts. The blog roll at present ranges mainly between art, architecture and planning, with a helping of cultural theory, pop culture and gaming.
Our image-world, what we see and the forms of perception at our disposal, is so massively influenced by marketing media. I got scandalous looks at my viva from a comment in my thesis that I’d rather look at ads than most fine art photography – ads being more sophisticated and more compelling. Then there’s things like this:
Every year a local farmer piles hay bales and paints them to look like a big ol’ John Deere tractor. It sits at the edge of the field advertising their fruit stand to the interstate freeway, a painted folk marketing sculpture.
Photo by imagineering
Quote from photographer Diane Arbus: “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know.”
