Return

Hello again.

Thanks for tuning in and please forgive the long gap in writings, needed to take a break to look after some personal problems, as they have now passed, I’m returning back to researching, producing work and making this blog. The breakaway has had a number of effects (as they most always do), these changes in circumstances, as well as a change in direction, has led to an analysis of the future happenings of this profile.

Firstly I need to commit to re-examining the purpose of Urgent Temporality.

To help this I give a small history of UT, it was set up in 2020 as a channel for my research image making, it was for the work that didn’t fit under any of the previous umbrellas that previous toils had fitted under. It was intended as a basis for a new ethic/research profile that would examine multiple arenas in particular the current usage/appreciation/reception/dissemination specifically in regards to photographies.

Now I appreciate that at the time this was considerably vague (perhaps that is also the case currently) and rather a broad definition for outcomes. I realise that it may sound a touch naïve with far too vast a subject area to be successful, but I had hoped through research to trim elements of this into specific questions, partly with an eye of creating a PhD question with this research. I believe with enough water and light it could grow into a valid question for study.

The original aim for the PhD was to help build a career in academia but as this has given me little encouragement in the last 12 months, I am afforded an opportunity to a rethink of the direction needed. Added into that is the realisation that my age and structure may be preventative in pursuing a career in education, so a wholesale change can be committed to, this is done to make sure that the question is not just topical but worthy as well. With these constraints of academia being loosened then almost everything can all be re-evaluated with a new timescale, need, purpose and possibly even overarching subject area as well?  

With this change then it does raise the question of what Urgent Temporality is for now?

Again I believe that there is need to look back at its inception would be beneficial.

At that time I needed something that resonated with the current but allowed future scope for development and direction. Part of the selection process for the name (something that is equally important and unimportant depending on your standpoint.) I alighted on these two words as a description for what I believed are photographies greatest banes and triumphs. I thought that the similarities, yet clashing nature of the two words together summed up my state of thought, and desire, so Urgent Temporality was born and based upon the conflicting/complimentary usage of the words and their definitions:

Urgent - requiring immediate action or attention.

Temporality – the state of existing within or having some relationship with time.

The exploration/mission statement/intended direction of travel behind this at that time was that photography had a very real existence in time and space both in the here and the now but can be changed when viewed contemporary and historically.

The innate ability of photographies in its need to be seen resulted in the urgency aspect but the increasing nature of the mediums temporality is seemingly negating the traditional power that it once held. As well as what I can only call the ‘flippancy’ shown towards the medium by most people. This can be viewed in many ways as in whether this is rightly bringing down the traditional gatekeepers or is it in fact just throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Of course I realise that this discussion has added into it issues of digital democratically which has led to a wider spread usage of the medium than ever before, and the inherent problems/benefits of that.

I would also add into that the lack of finances available in the medium, which can make the medium accessible for some and not for others. What will this mean in practical and theoretical terms for future practitioners and consumers? Again you can also add in the seemingly prevailing attitude involved in photographies, with its majority whiteness, certain type of maleness, therefore seemingly adding to the toxicity involved in the medium both historically, and which unfortunately it seems to be lapping into the currently.

Currently I feel these are larger subject areas, needing more research and suitability studies, so I am initially concentrating on where the boundaries/future is for UT in photographies.

That was then and this is now, so then using this increased knowledge, how do we adapt the umbrella term to be more encompassing of what we would like to achieve and how do we make it authentic and applicable to now?

 I have initially constructed this mission statement and while it has not been tested for its robustness and to see if it holds water, I will expose it here for just that reason and will use it as a starting point to work further from:

“UT will be applied as an examination process in which to dissect photography’s overarching appeal and help to understand its pervasive power with the intention of subverting this to open up future areas of research and thought.”

I propose to do this in two parts,

A)    By examining contemporary work, applying research to its usage, particularly in what makes it ‘good’ to the contemporary audience. Examining if there are any historical links to this work and what can be learned from this. I intend to examine both “everyday” and highly lauded imagery.

B)    I will be attempting to make images that have none of these attributes or appeals both in the classic realm and contemporaneous and will do this through the current medium of recognition applied to imagery and that is via widespread likes and/or value in contemporary thought.

My subject matter for this process will concentrate mainly on the observation of the misplaced and the out of place to connect visual narratives with proposed written narratives and observe how the two interact and repel each other. This work will be specifically looking at the juxtapositions of seemingly random things that appear in my life journeys. I will be trying to find connections and forcing connections to see how the ideas of contemporary photography hold up to obtuse pressure and scrutiny. Whether the act of photographing a ‘thing’ interjects into how they are seen and valued and why certain objects are not seen as valid until a photographic value is placed upon them. There will also be the use and application of words into a picture’s narrative either to increase or decrease engagement but sometimes it is placed unto pictures to improve and disprove something other than its given content.

This can be simplified somewhat to the statement that I’m looking at what makes pictures bad by identifying what makes a picture good by attempting to make bad pictures and seeing what that process does to the act of photography and looking at photography.

I realise that this mission statement could sound broad and naïve (again!), but there is absolute need to commit to a (new?) starting point for this work and using this as a development tool for the commencement of the research which will (hopefully) take this into a new sphere and discovery.

I do currently have the luxury of a little time with these directives as I’ve worked into that position. Following on with that time and through my break I’ve examined what part these blogs are to play in that structure. I am told that an important part of research and thought development is resilience, so with that in mind I will keep shaping and writing these, albeit with a more open structure as to allow for differing content,  although I am initially thinking about the continuation of the previous rotation of a) ideas for proposal for possible Papers and b) thoughts garnered from research around photographies, but is there anything new to add to this mix?

As mentioned previously I would like to examine works and develop that area of research and as such I would like to push myself into examining these works, linking the current/historical but including my own lived experience of working in the medium to contribute to the debates.

Along with the previous I also have a few new strands of enquiry that could develop into valid fully fledged questions, aiding the development of research, in the nature of academic thought I will share them here:

1.    An attempt to theorise the exploitation constructs of Photography. Historically this was held up as making ‘good’ pictures but now what is the thought process behind it?

2.    Following on from the finance in photography, what would be the effect if we close off the earning potential of photography disallowing people of limited means to enter the acts of photography in a considered and professional way assigning it to a hobby rather than a career and what will that mean for the medium?

3.    An examination of the value of my Archive with other similar archives. If no value is placed upon them, then what would the loss of them would mean long-term?

4.    What does TOXIC Masculinity look like? When can it be seen and once witnessed and photographed then what effect does that have on the now and in future behaviours?

5.    The act of the female gaze upon receptive/non receptive audiences, what does it look like to an outside audience, how does it manifest itself, what reception does it receive and what influence does it exert? Are there any other ways to see apart from specified gender roles?

6.    The classic link between neurodivergence and the medium of photography. What affect does this have and what links can be established between the act of seeing and the act of thinking differently?

7.    Boring pictures: Could the days be numbered of the production of simple evidence-based imagery (for recording successful deliveries and completion of tasks) die in the face of the A.I behemoth of the computer-generated creator of images?

There we have the current state of play where UT is situated, in ideas and words anyway, now to the image where are we at? As every blog needs an image then which one for this statement of intent, this manifesto?

Well in the last few weeks I’ve made/created thousands of them, some of them with this writing involved in the process of making and some not. I feel that the selection of this blogs image will most represent where I envisage Urgent Temporality to be seen/sit within my thinking, its choice is of the utmost importance and here it is:

Image In here

Why this image you may ask? In short, I believe it has so many multi-layered meanings with the subject matter/style/component parts, that it fits so perfectly within the proposal of the desired future UT direction and manifesto.

Let us expand on that with some explanation on the contents of the image.

It a blue WKD bottle floating in a canal with a new build of office space/hotel/flat living space nearing completion ‘behind’ it in the reflection on the water. That is its basic components. I believe that It starts off as quite a bizarre image as it looks the bottle is floating in space rather than in water, I believe the water doesn’t become apparent on first viewing.

Let me drill down further into the main components of the image:

The bottle is floating in a canal, these stretches of water are a hangover from the last century when their use was to transport goods/fuel/people but are now used primarily as recreational facilities. Most seem to have fallen into disrepair with no money to clean and maintain them, this from the city centre ones I notice most, they rarely seem ‘clean’ although there are fish in them so possibly not as unclean as they seem.

The bottle is also a WKD bottle which contained a sparkling alcoholic mix (4% ABV) of fruit flavours, ‘pop’ like substance. This one is on offer at £4 something as seen on the neck of the bottle, can be found cheaper in larger supermarkets. I believe this to be seen as quite a “camp” drink not something that is seen as an overtly masculine or civilised or cultured.

The reflection building is representational of partially how we see spaces these days, they must be shiny and new to be respected, they must be built, and they must be of a certain generic specifications that late-stage capitalism is guiding. They will be built, but they may not be filled as continued changes in society happen. The reflection of this building can be representational of many institutions, thoughts and directives.

The last element of the greenery could be so many things both in the reflection and on the floating on the surface of the canal that its almost too vast a subject to open into.

You could say that my gut led me to make it as this image wasn’t made specifically for anything, but I did have the writing of these words sloshing around in my head so maybe the influence was subconscious, depending on how you view the act of making imagery (either one goes out and sees what they see, or they plan to an infinite detail what they would like to capture)

Now the component pieces seem to be so representational, well to me at least and as these are so personal, the sharing of them instils a foreboding/lack of confidence to state these words. But academia/society/culture doesn’t work like this, if you make something then you have to commit yourself to an explanation of its merits and wonders. No longer can it be said that the image speaks for itself, this act of justification is a factor that I strongly believe in, the committal of meaning to images is a benefit to the progression of the medium. Although one does run the risk of overstating things and that leads to unacceptance and alienation so the act of committing a meaning to an image is a daunting process, especially when one knows the true opinion of peers/strangers in this current world. “How can that be so…” I can hear ringing out.

Well I only offer up this view and I have not shared that the bottle is representational of me or that the building is representational of academia, the canal reminiscent of my journey or my current state.  Not yet anyway. I haven’t also shared that it was scarily representational even down to the editing process. Where the original was a touch too green so I had to dial that down, to the way I couldn’t get the brightness in the highlights out of the bottle to show a little more evenness and grey conformity, I just couldn’t dim it at all, symbolism 101 anyone?

The further I look at this image the more it become so very symbolic to the UT Practice the deeper I see into it, the more it naturally presents itself as THE image that is representational for Urgent Temporality in September of 2023.

I intend all these components the writing and the images to be academic pieces so welcome the application of due rigour to these works, as such I welcome any feedback, thoughts or comments please send via the usual channel.

Many thanks for your continued involvement in this process.