A RT G A L L ERY DIGITAL ETHOS: TRANSFORMATIONS IN A T​T EN​D EES ' TICK ET

EVENT G A L L ERY
CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY P RE​S EN​T ERS ' IN​F O R​M A ​T IO N
AESTHETICS SUBSEQUENT TO
S P E​C IA L CA L L S P RE​S EN​T ERS
COMPUTATIONAL ART
FIND A RTIS TS

K EY NO TES P UB​L I​C A ​T IO NS

Paper Digital Ethos: Transformations in Contemporary
EX​H I​B I​T IO NS A ND EVENTS Photography Aesthetics subsequent to Computational Art O R​G A ​N I​Z A ​T IO N
has been created.
P A N​E L S P RES S
VIEW EDIT
P A P ER S ES ​S IO NS P A RT​N ER​S HIP S
Dig​i​tal pho​tog​r a​phy al​lows artists to think in a more dar​ing and free way. This free​dom
WO RK ​S HO P S CO N​T A CT
in​f lu​ences the con​tent, vi​sual aes​thet​ics of art​works in con​tem​po​r ary pho​tog​r a​phy,

P RE- S Y M ​P O ​S IUM EVENTS

which is in​f lu​enced ex​ten​sively by dig​i​tal cre​a tiv​ity. This paper will focus on the sig​nif​i​- A BO UT IS EA
cance of dig​i​tal tech​nolo​g ies in chang​ing aes​thet​ics, plan​ning, vi​sion, fic​tion, re​a l​iza​tion
L O ​C A ​T IO NS of pho​tog​r a​phy and avant-garde pho​tog​r a​phy forms nour​ished by dig​i​tal cul​ture. search

M U RA T G E RM E N @S A BA N C I U N I V .E D U

M Y P A ​P ERS
A U ​T H OR(S )
Dig ​i ​t al Eth o s: T ran s​f o r​‐
m a​t io n s in Co n ​t em ​p o ​‐ Mr. Murat Ger​men
rary Ph o ​t o g ​r a​p h y Aes ​‐
th et​i cs s u b ​s e​q u en t to
Co m ​p u ​t a​t io n al Art

M Y A C​C O UNT

CRE​A TE P A P ER

CRE​A TE CO N​T ENT

L O G O UT

IN ​T RO​D U C ​T ION

Pho​tog​r a​phy is one of the cre​a tive fields at which tech​no​log​i​cal ad​vances in​f lu​ence artis​-
tic ex​pres​sion the most. The ease of ma​nip​u​la​tion brought by soft​ware and extra fea​-
tures avail​a ble in cam​eras made artists using pho​tog​r a​phy re​con​sider their vi​sions,
themes, nar​r a​tion, syn​tax and ways of shar​ing their art​work. Shar​ing sites like Flickr,
which ex​pe​dite en​coun​ters of var​i​ous in​di​vid​u​a ls from dif​f er​ent cul​tures, help in chang​-
ing the per​cep​tion of the much vital no​tion of time and en​a ble artists to get faster feed​-
back, rev​e​la​tion, ex​po​sure and lay​er​ing of in​f or​ma​tion to be con​veyed.

While some pho​tog​r a​phers, who are deeply ob​sessed with ana​log processes, deny dig​i​tal
tech​nol​ogy; it is quite ob​vi​ous that artists, who are aware of the com​plex​ity and par​tic​u​-
lar ad​van​tages that this tech​nol​ogy brings, in​deed end up with a novel aes​thet​ics of pho​-
tog​r a​phy. In ad​di​tion to the reg​u​lar mon​tage and col​lage meth​ods re​main​ing from the
old ana​log days, dig​i​tal imag​ing tech​niques allow artists to work with no​tions like aug​-
mented per​cep​tion, chronopho​tog​r a​phy, sur​r e​a l​ism, pic​to​r i​a l​ism, su​per​im​po​si​tion, sim​-
pli​f i​ca​tion, cre​a tion of new worlds, ap​pro​pri​a ​tion...

A U G​M EN TED P ER​C EP ​T ION

“With​out per​cep​tion there is no art. A work of art is an or​g a​nized array of sen​sory
stim​uli if, there​f ore, the senses are not stim​u​lated, then the true work of art does not
exist for the ob​server.” (Wise 19) Though there are stud​ies on ex​ceed​ing human sen​sory
ca​pa​bil​i​ties, our vi​sual per​cep​tion still takes ‘what the eyes see’ as the basis of ap​pre​hen​-
sion. In this case, artists who in​tend to go be​yond what one can see with the naked eye,
take ad​van​tage of soft​ware. These dig​i​tal means en​a ble artists to as​sem​ble and con​vey
in​f or​ma​tion in a holis​tic man​ner that is oth​er​wise not pos​si​ble to record in a sin​g le pho​-
to​g raph​i​cal doc​u​men​ta​tion act. The re​sult​ing to​tal​ity leads to a par​tic​u​lar aes​thetic
form which turns out to be the syn​the​sis of in​di​vid​ual forms, in other words a ‘sui
generis’ sit​u​a ​tion. One can in​ter​pret this as a cu​bist ap​proach.

If we con​sider the pre​sent dig​i​tal plat​f orms we use, var​i​ous tools of so​cial media on the
other hand; “lit​er​a cy, TV, com​puter games, the In​ter​net–all play a role in shap​ing how
we think. Tech​nol​ogy is never in​no​cent–we de​velop it and use it, and in turn it shapes us.
[…] Tech​nol​ogy al​lows one to have ex​pe​r i​ences far be​yond what are sup​ported by the
nor​mal human phys​i​ol​ogy. Stern​berg and Preiss ex​a m​ine the im​pli​ca​tions of tech​nol​ogy
on cog​ni​tion. When tech​nol​ogy is broadly con​cep​tu​a l​ized as 'the build​ing of ar​ti​f acts or
pro​ce​dures-tools-to help peo​ple ac​com​plish their goals,’ then the in​f lu​ence of tech​nol​ogy
on human de​vel​op​ment is as old as hu​man​ity. […] At the very least, it is be​com​ing in​-
creas​ingly ob​vi​ous that tech​nol​ogy is al​ter​ing men​tal func​tions (Stern​berg & Preiss,
2005).” (Gack​en​bach 346)

This al​ter​a tion takes us to the no​tion of cy​ber​cep​tion which is, after Roy As​cott, “the
emer​g ent human fac​ulty of tech​no​log​i​cally aug​mented cog​ni​tion and per​cep​tion.” Cy​ber​-
cep​tion car​r ies the po​ten​tial of lay​ing a firm basis for the de​vel​op​ment of higher states
of con​scious​ness, i.e. aug​mented per​cep​tion. This is why the con​g ru​ence be​tween com​pu​-
ta​tional and human be​hav​ior ap​peals to the artist and helps in aug​ment​ing his/her in​tu​-
itive gift to gen​er​a te aes​thetic form. An​dreas Gursky, one of the lead​ing pho​tog​r a​phers
of the much re​spected Düssel​dorf pho​tog​r a​phy school of Bernd & Hilla Becher, Chris
Jor​dan of USA and French pho​tog​r a​pher Jean-François Rauzier take ad​van​tage of dig​i​-
tal imag​ing and post-pro​cess​ing in order to take his work to a level that can​not be re​a l​-
ized oth​er​wise.

P IC ​T O​R I​A L ​I S T TEN ​D EN ​C IES

There is a never-end​ing re​la​tion​ship be​tween pho​tog​r a​phy and paint​ing. When pho​tog​-
ra​phy was in​vented, it took paint​ing’s func​tion of record​ing his​tory and was more
trusted as a doc​u​men​tary tool since it wit​nessed ex​pe​r i​ences more re​a l​is​ti​cally than
paint​ings, which are ac​tu​a lly con​structs from scratch. Later pho​tog​r a​phy proved its in​-
de​pen​dence and stopped being seen as pure ev​i​dence. This is when it found the op​por​tu​-
nity to act like paint​ing and be taken as an ap​pa​r a​tus of fic​tion. This new re​la​tion​ship
gave birth to ‘pic​to​r ​ial’ pho​tos that em​u​lated op​ti​cal qual​i​ties of paint​ings, which in turn
paved the path to hy​per-re​a l​is​tic paint​ings that are eas​ily mis​taken for pho​tos.

If we look at the early stages of this re​la​tion​ship; “by the last quar​ter of the 19th cen​-
tury, pho​tog​r a​phers around the world had sup​plied ample proof of the cam​era's unique
abil​ity to record peo​ple and places. At the same time, there were oth​ers who were tak​ing
pic​tures for a dif​f er​ent pur​pose. Con​vinced that the cam​era could be used to go be​yond
sim​ply record​ing what was in front of the lens, these pho​tog​r a​phers, both am​a ​teur and
pro​f es​sional, were de​ter​mined to pro​duce im​a ges of artis​tic merit. [...] Their aim was to
con​vince art crit​ics, other pho​tog​r a​phers, and the gen​eral pub​lic that pho​tog​r a​phy
should be re​g arded as a le​g it​i​mate form of art. [...] At the time, peo​ple re​g arded the
world's great paint​ings as the high​est form of vi​sual art. It was only nat​ural that artis​-
tic pho​tog​r a​phers began by try​ing to pro​duce the same kinds of im​a ges as those cre​a ted
by the great​est artists. They chose the same types of themes, set​tings, and com​po​si​-

tions. Like painters, they em​pha​sized the con​trasts be​tween dark and light tones (called
tions. Like painters, they em​pha​sized the con​trasts be​tween dark and light tones (called
chiaroscuro). [...] Per​haps the most dis​tin​g uish​ing char​a c​ter​is​tic of this early artis​tic
move​ment was the way in which many pho​tog​r a​phers ma​nip​u​lated their im​a ges.” (San​-
dler 57) Henry Peach Robin​son’s book ‘Pic​to​r ​ial Ef​f ect in Pho​tog​r a​phy,’ pub​lished in
1869; re​f erred to this move​ment, in​f lu​enced by the ‘pho​tog​r a​phy-as-art’ ap​proach, as
pic​to​r i​a l​ism.

The in​ti​mate con​nec​tion be​tween paint​ing and pho​tog​r a​phy is still so strong that many
con​tem​po​r ary pho​tog​r a​phers like He​lena Blomqvist (Swedish), Désirée Dol​r on, Jasper
de Bei​jer (Dutch), Chris​t​ian Noir​f alise (Bel​g ian), Yao Lu, Lu Jun (Chi​nese), Nazif
Topçuoğlu (Turk​ish), Alessan​dro Bavari (Ital​ian) are tak​ing ad​van​tage of the dig​i​tal
imag​ing tech​nolo​g ies in order to cre​a te pho​tos that re​sem​ble paint​ings. “Peter Bun​nell,
in his work ti​tled ‘A Pho​to​g raphic Vi​sion: Pic​to​r ​ial Pho​tog​r a​phy 1889-1923’ (1980), as​-
so​ci​a tes the an​tipho​to​g raphic art pho​tog​r a​phy known as ‘pic​to​r i​a l​ism’ with a re​a c​tion
against ‘the de​hu​man​iz​ing ef​f ects of sci​ence and ap​plied tech​nol​ogy.’ Pic​to​r i​a l​ism, he
adds, placed ‘its great​est em​pha​sis on the in​di​vid​u​a l​ity of the artist as wit​nessed in the
work of art and idio​syn​crasies of its pro​duc​tion.’ ” (Stern​berger 37)

P A L IMP S ES T- L IKE S U ​P ER​I M​P O​S I​T ION : L A Y ​E R​I N G TRA N S ​P A REN ​‐
C IES

A palimpsest (Greek “palin,” again; “psëstos,” scraped) is a re-used pa​pyrus or parch​-

ment man​u​script in which the orig​i​nal text has been washed or scraped off and a new
one sub​sti​tuted. The mod​ern ver​sion of this ar​chaic sur​f ace of knowl​edge which al​lows
ac​cu​mu​la​tion of in​f or​ma​tion is the Pho​to​shop can​vas, where you can com​pletely cover a
layer be​hind yet still make some de​tails emerge from be​neath. This pos​si​bil​ity of lay​er​-
ing var​i​ous data from dif​f er​ent sources one on plane is a more com​plex form of the
good old ana​log col​lag​ing & mon​tag​ing meth​ods and en​a bles artists to reach a richer
ex​pres​sion through su​per​im​posed plu​r al​i​ties.

Ger​man artists Elger Esser, Kay Kaul and Michael Na​j​jar, Turk​ish artists Murat Du​r u​-
soy and Zeynep Kayan are among nu​mer​ous pho​tog​r a​phers who ben​e​f it from su​per​im​-
po​si​tion, in which var​i​ous im​a ges be​come in​ter​wo​ven into a re​a ssem​bled com​plex fic​tive
en​tity as a col​lage that brings mem​o​r ies and places to​g ether in one plane.

IN ​C L U ​S ION OF TIME A S A N A R​R A ​T IVE TOOL

Pe​r iod(s) in​cluded in sin​g le pho​tographs are usu​a lly and nat​u​r ally much shorter than
pe​r i​ods doc​u​mented in video works. Yet, when it comes to com​bin​ing pho​tos taken at
dif​f er​ent times on one pho​to​g raph​i​cal sur​f ace, it be​comes pos​si​ble to see rem​nants of
longer pe​r i​ods of time. Per​f orm​ing time lapse pho​tog​r a​phy and com​posit​ing im​a ges as
a du​r a​tional pat​tern of many traces left by dif​f er​ent mo​ments, lead to the pos​i​tive no​-
tion of time​less​ness (lack of time de​pen​dence) due to the plural pres​ences of time at
once. Sub​stance be​comes multi-lay​ered and hi​er​a r​chy dis​a p​pears: All el​e​ments are rel​a ​-
tively equal parts to the whole.

An ac​cu​mu​lated pho​to​g raph​i​cal ren​der​ing of one place with var​i​ous lights, move​ments,
fig​ures, facets, ob​jects and sub​jects com​ing from dis​crete slices of time, al​lows a richer
vi​sual de​f ​i​n​i​tion of the par​tic​u​lar mi​lieu that can be a more faith​f ul de​scrip​tion of the
ob​server’s per​sonal ex​pe​r i​ences. The re​sult​ing im​a ges after such ac​cu​mu​la​tions are usu​-
ally vi​sual ex​pe​r i​ences im​pos​si​ble to the naked eye.

Ahmet Elhan of Turkey, Pablo Zuleta Zahr of Chile and Thomas Wein​berger of Ger​-
many are some artists who ma​nip​u​late the per​cep​tion of time by in​cor​po​r at​ing dis​tinct
phases of mo​ments pur​pose​f ully se​lected from the chrono​log​i​cal con​tin​uum.

S IM​P L I​F I​C A ​T ION A S A N EL U ​C I​D A ​T ION TOOL

Even though the pres​ence of the traces from dif​f er​ent times can help artists to im​prove
their ex​pres​sion, it is also pos​si​ble to take a com​pletely op​po​site di​r ec​tion and take in​-
for​ma​tion out from a sin​g le layer of time. This sub​trac​tive ap​proach lim​its du​r a​tion to
an even smaller frac​tion of time, to the de​g ree it does not exist. The lack of de​tail is not
meant to hide in​f or​ma​tion from the au​di​ence, but rather to en​lighten artis​tic ex​pres​sion
and make view​ers focus on a par​tic​u​lar con​tent more eas​ily. Fol​low​ing Mies van Der
Rohe’s fa​mous quote; “[some​times] less is more...”

Above men​tioned sim​pli​f i​ca​tion can be ob​tained by eras​ing the signs of speci​f icity and
turn​ing it into anonymity, po​ten​tially point​ing to the ba​nal​ity of our ho​mog​e​nized en​vi​-
ron​ments. An al​ter​na​tive way is to re​move the traces of typ​i​cal pres​ence in order to cre​-
ate a dis​turb​ing sense of ab​sence where ex​is​tence and at​ten​dance are nor​mally ex​pected.
These ex​clu​sions of na​tive de​tails from recorded re​a l​ity that may lead to float​ing com​-

po​nents that are iso​lated from their con​texts, chal​lenges our view of the re​li​a ​bil​ity of
po​nents that are iso​lated from their con​texts, chal​lenges our view of the re​li​a ​bil​ity of
pho​tog​r a​phy and our con​cept of the space rep​r e​sented by it. Jes​per Ras​mussen (Dan​-
ish), Josef Schulz (Ger​man), Matt Siber (Amer​i​can) are artists who use sim​pli​f i​ca​tion in
order to clar​ify what they want to con​vey through their pho​tographs.

TH E A N TI- REA L : S U R​R E​A L ​I S M IN P H O​T OG​R A ​P H Y

Pho​tog​r a​phy for some, is re​f lec​tion of re​a l​ity. Yet, the il​lu​sion of a sin​g le re​a l​ity, is crit​i​-
cized by W. Flusser: “The [ob​server] trusts [tech​ni​cal im​a ges] as he trusts his own eyes.
If he crit​i​cizes them at all, he does so not as a cri​tique of image, but as a cri​tique of vi​-
sion; his cri​tique is not con​cerned with their pro​duc​tion, but with the world ‘as seen
through’ them. Such a lack of crit​i​cal at​ti​tude to​wards tech​ni​cal im​a ges is dan​g er​ous in
a sit​u​a ​tion where these im​a ges are about to dis​place texts. [It] is dan​g er​ous be​cause the
‘ob​jec​tiv​ity’ of the tech​ni​cal image is a delu​sion. They are, in truth, im​a ges, and as such,
they are sym​bol​i​cal...” (Flusser 2000) Some artists take this crit​i​cal at​ti​tude to an ex​-
treme to defy Re​a l​ity and cre​a te a new syn​thetic re​a l​ity.

Quot​ing the Wikipedia de​f ​i​n​i​tion, “sur​r e​a l​ist works fea​ture the el​e​ment of sur​prise, un​-
ex​pected jux​ta​po​si​tions. [...] Sur​r e​a l​ism would ad​vo​cate the idea that or​di​nary and de​-
pic​tive ex​pres​sions are vital and im​por​tant, but that the sense of their arrange​ment
must be open to the full range of imag​i​na​tion. [...] Freud's work with free as​so​ci​a ​tion,
dream analy​sis and the hid​den un​con​scious was of the ut​most im​por​tance to the Sur​r e​-
al​ists in de​vel​op​ing meth​ods to lib​er​a te imag​i​na​tion.” Artists using dig​i​tal tech​niques to
take pho​tog​r a​phy from re​a l​ism to sur​r e​a l​ism, aim to free peo​ple from false ra​tio​nal​ity,
re​stric​tive cus​toms / struc​tures and prej​u​dice.

Ryuta Amae (Japan​ese), Michael Na​j​jar, Loretta Lux (Ger​man), AES+F (Russ​ian), An​-
thony Goicolea (Amer​i​can), Ruud van Empel (Dutch) are among artists who pro​duce
star​tling, oth​er​worldly sur​r eal im​a ges which in​volve com​pos​ite el​e​ments culled from
dif​f er​ent set​tings, fig​ures, cul​tures, in​di​vid​u​a ls and com​bine them into new topogra​-
phies, char​a c​ters and sce​nar​ios.

A P ​P RO​P RI​A ​T ION

The com​plex no​tion of ap​pro​pri​a ​tion is straight​f or​wardly de​f ined by Mikhail Bakhtin:
“The word in lan​g uage is half some​one else's. It be​comes one's own only when the
speaker pop​u​lates it with his own in​ten​tion, his own ac​cent, when he ap​pro​pri​a tes the
word, adapt​ing it to his own se​man​tic and ex​pres​sive in​ten​tion. Prior to this mo​ment of
ap​pro​pri​a ​tion, the word does not exist in a neu​tral and im​per​sonal lan​g uage, but rather
ex​ists in other peo​ple's mouths, in other peo​ple's con​texts, serv​ing other peo​ple's in​ten​-
tions: it is from there that one must take the word, and make it one's own.” (Bakhtin
1981:294)

Art is such a field that one can eas​ily bor​r ow an idea, art​work, ap​proach and use
it/them in his/her work, with the con​di​tion of quot​ing the ref​er​ence in ideal con​di​tions.
Very fa​mous works like “Las Meni​nas” by Diego Velázquez have been rein​ter​preted in
the form of “hom​mage à …” by very fa​mous artists like Pablo Pi​casso and Joel Peter
Witkin. In pho​tog​r a​phy, peo​ple like Thomas Ruff buy the copy​r ights of old pho​tos
taken by an​other pho​tog​r a​pher and re​touch them in Pho​to​shop, color them par​tially
and fi​nally trans​f orm them into their own art​works. In a re​cent se​r ies called ‘JPEGs’
(2004-9) Ruff uses ready​made JPEGs by ex​ploit​ing the lossy com​pres​sion of vi​sual data
into spoiled ar​ti​f acts. Ruff blows low qual​ity low-res files up in order to re​veal how
much in​f or​ma​tion is lost al​r eady be​f ore im​a ges are served to peo​ple and be​come iconic
in world his​tory. These im​a ges, blurred due to ex​treme up-scal​ing, are some​where be​-
tween leg​i​bil​ity - il​leg​i​bil​ity and point to the skep​ti​cism that peo​ple should adopt against
im​a ges that are sup​posed to con​vey ac​tu​a l​i​ties of world news.

C ON ​C L U ​S ION : C RE​A TION OF A N EW WORL D

Mark King​well as​serts that “pho​tographs are not mul​ti​ple de​pic​tions of some sin​g le re​-
al​ity, wait​ing out there to be cor​nered and cropped, and some​how reg​u​lat​ing, even in the
cor​ner​ing and crop​ping, how / what the image means. Rather, pho​tographs offer mul​ti​-
ple mean​ings. The pre​sented image is not a re​f lec​tion, or even an in​ter​pre​ta​tion, of sin​-
gu​lar re​a l​ity. It is, in​stead, the cre​a tion of a world.” (King​well 2006)

Truth with the cap​i​tal T is not taken as the de​par​ture point in this paper; on the con​-
trary, per​sonal de​lin​eations of tem​po​r ary yet ex​pe​r i​enced smaller re​a l​i​ties is sug​g ested.
Dig​i​tal tools avail​a ble for pho​tog​r a​phy allow the artists in the field to think in a more
dar​ing and free way. This free​dom in​f lu​ences the con​tent and also the vi​sual aes​thet​ics
of the re​cently cre​a ted art​works in the uni​ver​sal prac​tice of con​tem​po​r ary pho​tog​r a​phy.
Pho​tog​r a​phy is prob​a ​bly one of the vi​sual art plat​f orms that is in​f lu​enced the most by
dig​i​tal pro​duc​tion and cre​a tiv​ity. For​tu​nately, it seems it will con​tinue to be so in the fu​-
dig​i​tal pro​duc​tion and cre​a tiv​ity. For​tu​nately, it seems it will con​tinue to be so in the fu​-
ture and dig​i​tal means will strengthen pho​tog​r a​phy’s po​si​tion in the art world as one of
the most pro​g res​sive ex​pres​sion plat​f orms.

Ref​er​ences and Notes:

Stern​berg, R. J., & Preiss, D. D. (Eds.) (2005). In​tel​li​g ence and tech​nol​ogy: The im​pact
of tools on the na​ture and lev​els of human abil​ity. Mah​wah, NJ: Lawrence Erl​baum As​-
so​ci​a tes.

King​well, M., 2006. The Truth in Pho​tographs: Ed​ward Bur​tyn​sky's Rev​e​la​tions of Ex​-
cess. Steidl, Ger​many

Flusser, V., 2000. To​wards A Phi​los​o​phy of Pho​tog​r a​phy. Reak​tion Books.

Jayne Gack​en​bach, ed., Psy​chol​ogy and the In​ter​net: In​trap​er​sonal, In​ter​per​sonal, and
Transper​sonal Im​pli​ca​tions, (Boston: El​se​vier/Aca​d​e​mic Press, 2007) 346.

James F. Wise. Per​cep​tion and the Vi​sual Arts. Art Ed​u​ca​tion, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Feb.,
1970), p. 19. Na​tional Art Ed​u​ca​tion As​so​ci​a ​tion.

Mar​tin W. San​dler, Pho​tog​r a​phy: An Il​lus​trated His​tory (New York: Ox​f ord Uni​ver​sity
Press, 2002) 57.

Paul Spencer Stern​berger, The Le​g it​imiza​tion of Pho​tog​r a​phy as Art in Amer​ica, 1880-
1900 The Le​g it​imiza​tion of Pho​tog​r a​phy as Art in Amer​ica, 1880-1900 (Al​bu​querque,
NM: Univ. of New Mex​ico Press, 2001) xiv.

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