Moving Images

The current technological progress has generated a continually growing flow of information under the form of images. Given the digital distortion to which an image is subjected, the information, although not necessarily transformed, becomes more complex and nuanced. I am talking about how an image can be altered when it becomes an electronic product, no longer corresponding to reality, to what the camera captured initially. This is also valid in the case of artworks.

This article is about the mechanism of obtaining a moving image of contemporary artists and the way they use the time and space relationships in a gallery to question different issues. The concept of moving images addresses more and more themes that refer to the changes occurring in the world every day. Digital technology has facilitated an explosion of such works, and the expansion of contemporary art museums, biennials and large-scale exhibitions around the world has created places and an audience for them. 

Without going into the specific details and the chronology of the emergence and development of reproduction techniques, I can say that no work, regardless of its author, will ever be attributed the unique character of a genuine experience. The fact that it belongs to a certain place or time sums up its entire existence, which is determined both by the passage of time and its submission to the technological factors with which it interacts. For instance, as Xenia Tinca shows in her article on performance published in the previous issue, recording and documenting artworks can be both an advantage, since they preserve visual aspects otherwise lost due to the transience of the moment, and a disadvantage, because they will never have the same impact on the public. 

Taking a leap into the present, I feel compelled to say that apparently the pandemic has made us more aware of how fragile life is, has accentuated our need to belong to a community and has increased our fear that even the most ordinary activities could become prohibited. A new shift in our relationship with visual media forms has occurred and the way we see social interactions on the screen has changed. Digital devices have remained the essential tools that connect us, and the “images” are the only ones that are still moving and seem to have continued their lives. However, we are overwhelmed by a flow of images and information that completely distort our perception of reality, providing alternative visions of rethinking the present and imagining the future.