Being, having, Appearing.

Modernity is never about Being.

Since the rise of capitalism, it's about Having, because if the masses are all thinking about Being, then there won't be any profitable business.

It is  Having  that is profitable. Having, means people buying or consuming. The world has then become a world of ownership.

But, unlike Being, there is nothing to justify the act of Having.

So, to justify Having, we have come to the society of spectacle.

"To be seen" have then become the key word.

It also becomes what constitute the reality.

The reality is now what we can see, instead of what we are.

Appearing , does not only justify Having, it have make Having  a precondition of Appearing.

You appear, because you have, even if you are not.

This logic has come to such a craze that, it becomes the mode of society,

"Spectacle,..  philosophizes reality" as Guy E. Debord puts it.

"We hope that you choke"

In the era, where emotions are commodified.

In the era, where uniqueness is understood in terms of mass reproduction.

In the era, where being is not as important as having, and having is not as great as appearing.

In the era, where economy grows for its own sake.

In the era, where LOVE is sold, where SADNESS is sold, where HAPPINESS is sold.

In the era, where to experience means to glance, to overheard, to briefly taste..

In the era, where LIFE is commodified.

In the era, where REVOLUTION is also commodified.

In the era, where revolutions are indeed counter-revolutions.

"We hope, that you choke, that you choke".


(Dedicated to the power, the revolutionaries and the mass. )

( " We hope that you choke, that you choke."
is a lyric line from Radiohead's "Exit Music(for a film)" )

Self-portrait ( Photomedia homework).

( Presentation 的文章)

Self-portrait

我從中學起，就蠻喜歡自拍。那個時候的自拍照，現在再看起來拍得很一般。我喜歡自拍的原因，小時候覺得自己蠻帥的，所以就喜歡自拍。那是一種有自信心的表現吧，雖然也許有人認為這是一種自戀的表現吧。

後來，買了一部數碼單鏡反光相機後，反而少了自拍。也許也是人長大了，不再單看外表後，就不那麼常自拍了。

自拍照，我覺得跟自畫像 (self-portrait)的功能很相似。兩者都是一種自我呈現的表演。自拍照跟自畫像當然有著技術上的不同，正如本雅明所講有關攝影的問題時所指。但是自拍照我認為也是一種自我的呈現，不管是否帶有表演性質。要拍出一張好的自拍照，其實一點也不容易。很多時候在網絡上見到的自拍照都屬於一種純粹紀錄自己樣貌的照片。在開始了接觸攝影以後，以及開始讀這視覺文化研究碩士以後，我就決定重新為自己拍一些自拍照，作為一種重新檢視自我的形式。

而拍這一張自拍照，並不是單單的拿起相機隨便的拍。這一張自拍照是在近二百張照片中所選出來的一張。跟一般人所認知的自拍不同。一般來說，網絡上作自拍照的人也只會是三數張的照片選其中一張。開始以更認真的心態去接觸攝影以後，我覺得自拍照跟其他攝影作品一樣，需要花同樣多的心機去拍攝。這個過程中，自拍者一定得接觸無數個自己的形象，從中選取一張自拍者認為最代表自己的照片。那個過程，正正是一種自我認知的過程。

說一說這張照片，我採用了單點光源，試圖做出三角光（亦稱為倫勃朗布光法）的效果。這一種布光法，常用於肖像的攝影。由來是十七世紀的荷蘭畫家倫勃朗的自畫像中常用的一種光源分布。這種光法常用於男性的肖像攝影，燈光在臉上形式三角形的影子，令面的兩側看上不相同。在這一張自拍照中，我的半邊面被相機所遮掩。由於是對著鏡子的關係，被遮蓋了的是右邊面，右眼的位置被相機取代，暗示著我透過攝影去看世界。而兩手持著相機的姿態，又暗示那並不是一件輕而易舉的事情。

而構圖方面，我把面置於正中，而眼睛也是放於水平中線附近，這樣把照片分為了四份，當中三份是有著光源的反射，突出於黑色的背景之上。而眼神直接的向鏡頭看，作為了一種視覺的引導。置中的構圖法顯示出我自己有一點點的自我中心的性格，而直視鏡頭的眼神則顯示出自信感，全黑的背景除了為突出受光的部份以外，也是凝造了一種神秘的感覺，同時又把視線吸引於受光的輪廓上而忽略背後的景物。

Final 的一張

同場加映，被放棄了的概念的其中一張：

朋友說很像 The curious case of Benjamin Button 的海報

Self-portrait 2

A photomedia homework

the final version will be uploaded later

A blue tone.

Screen

We are in the era of screen.

Screen as a plane to present visual stimulus, and also as a plane to prevent visual stimulus to enter our sight.

It's paradoxical. We see, and we cannot see through the screen.

It's a plane which opens our vision to blindness.

It's a little rectangular plane that were placed all around our habitat and forced us into blindness.

Reality is re-construct and re-perceived through screens.

We no longer see with our eyes, but we see with our screens.

It shows us the world, and it blinds us from seeing the world.

We, are in the era of the screen.

壹二零四

午夜
十二時零四分
抬頭向上八十五度
那是一片星空
我沒有細數，但我相信
我看到了二十九顆星星。

雖然是黑
但是卻彷彿帶著生命。
雖然無聲，
卻好像透過微弱的光織出歌詠。

瑋
20101129

凌晨四時

我聽著清新的空氣
聲音彷彿像被黑暗嚇呆了。
只有面前的光，機器的聲音
和那幾乎聽不到的心跳聲。

拒絕合作快快完成工作的軟件
頭暈腦昏。
我明白到
凌晨四時總教人感到一陣死寂的原因。

20101126