Notes on: The Faux–Vintage Photo

Physicality, with its weight, smell and tactile interaction, grants a significance that bits have not (yet) achieved. The quickest way to invoke nostalgia for a time past with a photograph is to invoke the properties of the physical, which is done by mimicking the ravages of time through fading, simulated film grain and scratches as well as the addition of what appears to be photo-paper or Polaroid borders around the image.

That an old photo was taken and has survived grants it an authority that the equivalent digital photo taken today cannot achieve. In any case, that the faux-vintage photograph aspires to physicality is only part of why they have become so massively popular.

Quotes taken from Nathen Jurgens interesting piece about The Faux–Vintage Photo Pt 2.

(here follows some badly written but hopefully interesting thinking spawned by this article.)

I wonder if the key is that by allowing the digital image to appear as real and specifically old, it becomes imbued with an inherent value which is associated with effort and specifically time. On the one hand this desire to obtain and own things which contain 'time-value' could be seen as an anchor against the fast moving and changing world we live in now. It could also be, (and this is where my pop sci-cology kicks in) that we are scared of death- time is running out and if we can somehow possess, and therefore control time, we can keep it away for that bit longer. Or perhaps, more accuratley, by getting hold of stuff with embued 'time-value' we can be seen to be adding gravitas to our own legacy, by extending the perception of our timescale (period we have covered with our life) we can be seen to be more successful or better remembered when we do die.

There is another aspect here- not just to do with faux-vintage, but things with a patina of age (a beautifully rusted garage door, or a worn piece of wooden type). Second hand objects in general (some more than others of course) can be seen to be carriers of 'time-value' but the way this value is traded is is stories and narrative. The objects acquired at a junk market have had a life of their own before I get hold of them and by purchasing them (and here real currency plays little role in time, It could have be expensive or cheap the effect is the same) I acquire their unknown story, narrative and history with it. In that way the buyer can feel like they are acquiring time.

Aveleyman – Internet Curio

I came across this website the other day. It's a sort of internet movie data base created by (I hope) one guy. It isn't IMDB. In a world where IMDB exists how and why does this keep going. I love it as a testament to one guys commitment to film, I love the aesthetics, it harks back to an age when people made websites and they were personalised totally, (I'm not going to rant about the blandification which myspace imposed on the web). The site is just impressive- perhaps that's it actually- that I'm fairly sure it's one person behind this sprawling, slightly clunky but very rich website makes it a labour of love, a feeling which the more factually accurate and reliable IMDB lacks.  

Long Live The People's Internet.

High Arctic – United Visual Artists

Epic new installation at the National Maritime Museum as part of their new Sammy Ofer Wing. (Kin have a new Compass Lounge there also - more on that later). You're equipped with a ultra-violet torch which reveals text in the space and is used to interact with a series of projection 'pools'. All with the aim to highlight the effects we're having on the environment up there, and in particular the melting of the glaciers. Once you get over the novelty of the torches and twig it's UV light altering the projected 'ice' it becomes quite poignant. A very different and unusual exhibition for any museum, much more like an immersive art piece experience.