This chapter seems a bit more problematic than I thought, a generalised understanding of the unconsious has not afforded me very much to be able to talk about so perhaps this will help.
Remember - Prosthetic Culture - Celia Lury (COULD STILL HAVE TIME TO READ THIS)
Self-awareness as metacognition about own self-concept
subconcsious - see how this affects our actions
- if our actions are predetermined then is it ever possible to have an accurate representation?
psychodynamic point of view i.e friends + unconscious
psycho analytic theory more open to interpretation
Draw upon the unconscious processes influencing decision towards a picture.
-Mood Congruence - selection of a picture influenced by internal mood state at the time
-Projection/Introjection - selection/taking an image might be down to projection of things we aren't aware of
(Note to self, this may creep back in after I have suggested the death of the author.)
POINT OF CHAPTER: Highlights MORE problems... conscious has problems, the unconscious has even more problems involved in how we interpret a photograph.
Conscious choices - have the problem of possibly being decieved.
If their identity is obscured / changed / decieved ... well then this can all still imply the photographer behind the frame... the doer behind the doing is revealed through the context of the work. (Context slowly being revealed here)
-additional problem is the unconscious... and where this chapter begins
Either way, the photograph can be the photographers choice directly or the culmination of all the photographers choice... have focused on being conscious of that fact and it seems to imply that accuracy of this would then be a degree of accuracy that we can have of the photographer.
What would happen if we investigate the unconscious and the affect it seems to have...
It would mean that our conscious choices could never be directly free from bias.
I may not even be aware of some of the things I am doing, my choices are all affected.
How can this ever make for an accurate representation of something we are not aware of?
-how does this affect our actions?
-influence our choices / predetermined
-mood congruence, internal state at the time
-projection/introjection - projectiong of things not aware of
After this our get out of jail card will be the suggesting of a move towards the death of the author and so switching the fundamental judgement to that of the perciever to decide.
Simon Johnson
www.thephilosophicalphotographer.co.uk
Revised chapter 4
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