is a mistake often made by the individuals of a generation
to believe that they are different from any other generation beforehand or
otherwise. If I were to say that this current generation appears to be the
most blatantly narcissistic I would be
making a similar mistake to generations before me. After all, “The children now
love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show
disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise” is a quote
attributed to Socrates. Perhaps vanity has always existed in those young enough
to warrant it. However, the change is clear. There now exists a tool to express
our most shallow nature in the most intrusive way to date. This is obviously
the camera in your pocket. Not confined to the consideration of finality as
film is, but rather an infinite opportunity to produce wanton on a global scale.
An immediate observation at any famous monument, in any country, is a pervading
fear among tourists to lay eyes upon that renowned thing. But instead to shield
your gaze through a phone screen, reproducing said object 4.5x2” so as to cope
with the cultural star before you. Increasingly our worldview is found in this
minute representation. Contrary to the notion of tourism and an extension of
context, we limit ourselves to a cropped facsimile which is wrongly taken for
the whole picture rather than the snapshot it is, and in doing so become the
first generation to live up to our faults.
I aim to show this through a reproduction of a monument on the
cropped scale. Phones on stands representing the equivalent height and place of
members of the crowd in relation to the monument. The screen showing exactly
what they would see, and in doing so building up a picture of a monument
without it being there.
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| Phone stand location in monument |
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| And in alternative space |
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| Pantheon in Rome, site of inspiration |
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