Gortazar, P. 2022. Remember Photography: Bidimensional Stillness and Desire in the Virtual Infinity. Photographies International Conference, Boundaries and Borders. Texas State University, San Antonio 23 - 24 Sep 2022
| Title | Remember Photography: Bidimensional Stillness and Desire in the Virtual Infinity |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gortazar, P. |
| Type | Conference paper |
| Abstract | During the last decade, a number of theorists have defended the idea that photography, through its new computational and networked existence, is progressively losing its representational identity. While some argue that the photograph remains little more than an active contributor to the sins of communicative capitalism, others insist on the idea that we must forget photography altogether, and replace it with an alternative understanding of coded, non-human imagery. But while it is evident that the computational materiality of contemporary photographs has turned most distributed images into data-generated (and generating) assets, the way most photographs continue to operate in our society suggests that the specificity of the medium remains practically unaltered since modernist times. In an age where immersive virtual worlds will soon dominate our online interactions, this paper discusses the possible forms and uses of photography within extended reality environments. Through practice-led, experimental research on the use of virtual cameras to record immersive, lived experiences, and the analysis of recent work produced by the so-called virtual photographers documenting their gaming experience, this study investigates the value of the photographic frame as a still, two-dimensional representation, while questioning its function within extended reality environments. It would be argued that, despite the radical technological changes undergone by the medium, the persistent desire for the bidimensional stillness offered by the photographic frame is likely to sustain the medium as the preferred form of visual representation for most lived experiences, not only within our physical world, but inside replica environments such as the Metaverse and other extended reality platforms. |
| Keywords | paula gortazar, virtual photography, metaverse, emerging technologies, photography, computational photography, photography theory |
| Year | 2022 |
| Conference | Photographies International Conference, Boundaries and Borders |