| Peter Snyder |
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These are portraits, in particular they are a portraits of people walking through the same intersection in the Union Square neighborhood of New York City at the same exact time of day while listening to their MP3 players. What these portraits say about what they are thinking (if anything), or listening to (if anything) or anything internal for that matter is a secret that each face guards or perhaps, if you care to believe, reveals. In reality you and I will never know.
The particular phenomena of the iPod and iTunes has changed how we experience music and in some ways our lives. We have an instantly adaptable personal soundtrack to every moment of our lives. Which leaves me with a bunch of questions about what effects such nearly constant music has on us.
The images are jumping off points for these questions:
What is given up and gained when using a MP3 player in public? Are the inherent trade-offs worth it? Do the MP3 users smile inside when they listen or forget they have the headphones on? How much scoring of life is healthy? When does it become a numbing maybe even neurotic act?
When I pose such questions to MP3 player users they very often are met with flippant dismissal.
As David Levi Strauss points out: "This Panglossian imperative of the "new digital democracy" is beginning to take on all the characteristics of a collective hallucination. When one objects to it, or merely questions it, the subject under hallucination can snap, and react with rage."
Critical and conscious use of technology can be and many times is a good thing. I am arguing for a balanced view of the digital revolution. This perspective flies in the face of the prevailing beliefs that technology is decidedly positive, democratic, connective and will triumph and solve all our problems. |
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