The spread of augmented reality systems, the popularization of sensory design and new forms of sociability based on fluid communities of video and photo consumers and producers indicate that images have ceased to be frameable surfaces and have become the most important communication interfaces of our time.
Mobile apps such as QR-code readers and programs like Layar or Wikitude have taken augmented reality out of specialized scientific circles and into everyday life, making this technology literally accessible in the palm of your hand. Products such as the Wii and iPad are a kind of synesthesia exercise for the masses, exploring combinations of senses, such as sight and touch, that turn images into immersive, interactive interfaces. Platforms such as YouTube and Flickr expand forms of dialogue and interpersonal exchange, mobilizing millions of creators, remixers and viewers who shape spaces of interaction based on images.
Each topic could be the sole subject of a presentation, thesis, book or essay. They involve distinct technologies of production, distribution and consumption, while circulating new ways of seeing and perceiving specific to the situations involved: location in urban contexts, for example, in the case of AR; leisure and information for the Wii and iPad; entertainment, citizen journalism or artistic experimentation for YouTube and Flickr.
In the presentation I am giving today at the “new formats” debate at the Latin American Photography Forum, however, I will focus on what might be called the macrostructural issues of digital images and their emerging aesthetics. The essay I am preparing for the publication resulting from this forum should address those questions of AR, new sociabilities and sensory design.
Today I prefer to focus on questions concerning the foundations of digital images and some of their cognitive, perceptual and creative implications. I start from the premise that digital images are beyond nature, and that this status gives rise to aesthetics of code, of the database and of complicity specific to algorithmic composition.
In a way, the presentation I am giving today at Iatã Cannabrava’s invitation also allows me to contextualize and reflect on the projects I am showing at Itaú in the exhibition Histórias de Mapas, Piratas e Tesouros, curated by Eduardo Brandão and Cia. de Foto.