Full Description
Photographing Ambiguity examines photography as a metaphor for technological culture, arguing that a relational exploration of the medium can shed light on the dominant ideological tendencies of our time. The book advocates for photographic practices that emphasize ambiguity, suggesting that this approach fosters more conscientious, ecological, and creative relationships within the technological ecosystem of contemporary life.
Ted Hiebert critiques the notion that images should primarily serve to verify or document the external world. He contends that these quantifiable perspectives, while rooted in historical trends towards technology and data, have become so pervasive that they represent a dominant ideological bias in the twenty-first century. In response to this data-driven consciousness, the book presents a series of exercises designed to cultivate an embodied experience with digital living - not in opposition to the flood of images but within it. Ultimately, Photographing Ambiguity encourages readers to understand photographs not as benchmarks of reality but as ambiguous constructions of our present and future imaginaries.
Contents
List of Photographs and Exercises
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Provocation
Lament
Structure
Snapshots
Photographing Ambiguity
1. Ecopoetics of Blur
Cross-Eyed Visions
Between Crossed Eyes
The Accident of Humanity
Stealing Souls
Peripheral Visioning
Plastic Gaia
Ecopoetics of Blur
2. Necro-Reflectivity
To Walk a Mirror
The Death of Reflection
Reflection after the Death of Reflection
Homeopathic Proximity
Zombie Existentialism
Nihilist Ecopoetics
Necro-Reflectivity
3. Smash Metaphysics
Smash
After the Smash
How to Greet the Death of the Future
A World Seen with Closed Eyes
The Production of Hope
Blowing Bubbles
Smash Metaphysics
4. Non-Choreography
On the Ceiling
A Chair Inside My Head
Going Off-Script
Workshop for Potential Reality
Reality Flexing
Pataphysics with a Conscience
Non-Choreography
5. Digital Darkness
Laser Pointer Tag
Fashioned with Flare
Placebo Ergo Sum
Manufactured Darkness
Emotional Contagion
Deceleration
Digital Darkness
6. Conspiracy Thinking
Tinfoil Hats
Attunement
An Excess of Privacy
The Conspiracy of the Real
Van Gogh's Right Ear
Horseplay
Conspiracy Thinking
Postscript
Exercise in Psychic Photography
Ghost Images
Photographing Ambiguity
Notes
Index
