Date of Award
Spring 6-3-2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master in Interior Architecture
Department
Interior Architecture
First Advisor
Barbara Stehle
Second Advisor
Eduardo Benamor Duarte
Third Advisor
Heinrich Hermann
Abstract
What is the role and value of low-resolution digital images, or "poor images," in a culture dominated by high-resolution and hyper-realistic digital media? This thesis investigates poor images from several perspectives: their technical characteristics, viewer’s experience, creative process, and artistic content.
With low-resolution as the defining characteristic of poor images, these pictures challenge the unceasing longing for ever-higher image resolution. While they seem unstable and untrustworthy, they challenge the obsession with higher resolution, offer an ambiguous visual experience, and provoke nostalgia. Poor images are open to appropriation, allowing users to become editors and co-authors. In the process of image-making, poor images reveal the relationship between people and digitalization, uncovering unexpected outcomes of the digital system itself. Poor images have been used as artists' manifestation, and re-animated to build narratives and outline social concerns. They have populated the art since the 80s, and continue to influence contemporary artists' visions and approaches.
Drawing on the characteristics of poor images, this thesis proposes an exhibition of these images at the Guggenheim Museum. Not merely an art gallery, the Guggenheim is a space for social and cultural discourse and exploration, underscored by its iconic architectural design. This exhibition challenges the existing space, and is intended to re-contextualizing the museum space to highlight the value of poor images. This exhibition uses a collection of poor images as a springboard to explore the diverse and complex roles of the medium. By creating a dynamic and interactive experience, Manifesto of Poor Images aims to encourage visitors to engage with contemporary visual culture in innovative ways. Through the exhibition, visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the role of images in shaping our perception of the world, and how this has evolved in the post-digital age.
Recommended Citation
He, Mengning, "Manifesto of Poor Images: Re-imagine Guggenheim in the Post-digital Age" (2023). Masters Theses. 1161.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/1161
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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