Through the Looking Glass
By
Calum Stamper


These visual explorations interrogate the surveillance state of social media and address the relationship of visual language. The exploration questions the effects of the visual imagery itself (a photograph) being corrupted or lost to the decay of over processing. This inquiry focuses on the replacement of context when the data in the visual language has decayed beyond basic translation and is forced to use text or semiotics such as emojis, as an example, to compensate for the lack of contextualisation. Although the text/semiotics do not translate the original context of the visual language presented to the audience, rather it creates a new depiction of the context. I decided to investigate the relationship of presentation in visual language as the question of information being streamed to social media users’ news feeds are not being regulated and policed by social media firms effectively.

Part of this reasoning behind this is due to the algorithms feeding information to an observer without interrogating the content itself. Although the issue of this argument is that algorithms cannot understand the difference between informing a viewer and harming one as it has no context of what data is seen as harmful to a person. This response I have created to the current debates/arguments in the issues of the internet and is a critique of this shared space. By using the methodology of over-processing/data bending the photographs have been treated through six different photo editing apps as a unique form of interrogation to expand the conversations being conveyed.


Instagram: ca1umstamper_thecameraman
Facebook: calum stamper

©calumstamper2019