Sunday, August 03, 2014

Making, Moments

Perhaps taking Polaroid shots is a kind of "making," a bit of physical creation in a mostly-digital world. Hold the artistic work in your hands. Cradle the tools of production and of imagination. It's not just "media"—it's the thing itself. There's something lyrical in there being only one of an object, and then pressing your fingertips against it.

The idea of an "image" is so different today than in any preceding century. Images in the cloud are ubiquitous, universally accessible, perhaps expected to last forever. In contrast, physical things are linked to a moment, emblazoned with now. In this Age, the logic of permanence has been turned on its head: by the very fact that something is corporeal, it is consequently more ephemeral. An object can be worn away by the elements or eaten by flames. It can be lost to history. It can disappear in time.