The architecture of loneliness (24h networked isolation)
A myriad of tiny single apartments, million nights lightened up by the bluish light of tv sets and laptop displays. We are so well networked, does this encourage isolation and lack of physical contact?
Normally I submit things that are shoehorns for many, but not for me. Here I am not sure.
This is a massive fail on my part, in that I had a picture of this installation with a building mimicking its shape in the background.
But I did not manage to take it so that butterflies and cable stayed visible enough, so the concept is lost in that image, and the building lost in this one.
As alternative approaches I could have found an alternative framing, keep it a close up but trying to capture the buildings reflections on the jar, expose half frame for one and half for the other, possibly take a double exposure or use hdr and PP to retain detail if it was not basic editing only.
Possibly something else, but I can't imagine what.
The outdoor installation is titled "Butterflies' dream" or something to that effect, in Spitalfields, London.
Tripod, PP in LR and Viveza.
[Jan. 19th, 2012 06:44:57 PM]
Post-challenge details:
Thanks to PennyStreet for encouraging me to submit this one rather than others, if some found it interesting it was the right choice.
Well, I have received quite a few comments speculating about what this is and how it might ever relate to the challenge. Thank you so much, comments are what I value most.
So I'll better elaborate a bit.
The image is about buildings and humans, not jars and butterflies.
If you say building I think house. If you say emotive, I think people and how they feel.
And, no, I did not jarred the poor critters myself, out of love for scientific endeavor or plain sadism :)
Perhaps someone might understand if they lived, as I did, in those shared houses or tiny one bedroom studios many skinned singles are forced to rent. So many people in those square, gigantic beehives of buildings, each window pulsating with the blue light of the tv at night. Everybody with their satellite, broadband and little gadgets, to balance up a life of early starts at works, late returns when it's dark, hurried take away dinners on the bed, then sleep, the out again. Not a place in the house to sit down and have dinner together, or a chat, but at least a door to your room, which says that that's your space, your perhaps embarrassing microcosm, but still yours and private.
But still, from this protected spaces little cables extend. It's a well connected isolation, and one can filter what seeps in and out.
One needs to actually, because everybody's is online, on facebooks, on flickers and twitters. Everybody has a public image, if you like, often that's all that other people get to see of you, if you like (I don't).
And how will people choose to project outside? Will they talk of the 14-hour daily grinds and the tight spaces you cram yourself in between? Some will, but most? Perhaps the wonderful gym deal you just got, the classical dance lessons, the smiley mug shots at the club, a bragged promotion which only means switching from 14-hours to 16.
So, for what is worth, that's the banal, probably stale, concept.
People will take great care to project as beautiful being, butterflies. While carefully filtering out disturbing inputs and outputs, keeping an isolation through tools which are ironically often hailed as the triumph of freedom, self expression and communication.
This obviously doesn't apply to everybody, just most, I fear. And it's obviously not limited to single people living in cubicles, I just find it more touching than infuriating in that specific case.
As I already mentioned, what you see in the image is an art installation, ‘Dreaming of a Butterfly’, by António Caramelo, currently an outdoor feat in Spitalfields (Liverpool Street, London)
//www.londonsciencefestival.com/dreaming-of-a-butterfly-antonio-caramelo-bishops-square-till-31-december-2011/
Apparently, when music is diffused though the lids/speakers, the butterfly will move and look still alive. Didn't find any button to get the thing working, though. My kid would have loved that.
Actually, taken by my networking idea, I didn't even notice that the cable where obviously speaker' ones, which triggered quite a lot of questions :)
It's a very suggestive piece of art, which always makes me feel sad, but I think the intent of the artist was quite different from mine.
Statistics
Place: 65 out of 86 Avg (all users): 5.2185 Avg (commenters): 7.8571 Avg (participants): 5.0000 Avg (non-participants): 5.3514 Views since voting: 1377 Views during voting: 302 Votes: 119 Comments: 16 Favorites: 5 (view)
First impression: Pity more of the voters didn't 'get' this shot and went with the usual literal interpretation of the challenge. I gave you a 7.
Artistic: Very strong conceptual image but hardly stale. This is a breath of fresh air.
Technical: Lighting is crisp and set is spotlessly clean, and the eye can't help but wander from one jar to the next by the wires. I had no ideas that those were speakers!
Overall: Please please please enter more wildly out-of-the-box images like this, this is exactly the kind of thing DPC in general needs to see more of. And don't worry about the scores; they just prove especially in this case that the voters have eyes of cloth. No point trying to please the capricious DPC voters, so shoot and enter what is true to you and your vision.
Great image ... one that I really like ... The connection to architecture is somewhat tenuous but I'm looking past that. I like the arrangement of the jars and the lines created by the wiring. I find the notion of the speakers broadcasting into empty jars interesting and coupled with your title, a provocative image. The image is virtually perfect technically.
Just returned for another look and wait, there's more. I just noticed the butterflies. Now I've got to think about this some more.
Such a bizarre composition. Not sure if folks will find a link to the challenge, but I love this. Such a weird arrangement...reminds me of something out of A Clockwork Orange. I'm putting this in my top 5, really hope it does well for you (+ a favourite too methinks)
This MUST be a verifiable scientific lab shot....or it's out of The Silence of the Lambs........ 10 for creativity....10 for butterfly torture...... :-((((
and what the hey...the jars actually say butterfly collection.....
not Ball.....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm let's hope they are listening to Mozart and not Rap. LET THEM GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why is this happening? Please explain. Emotive is an understatement.
I think people will dock your score by claiming this is not a building... but the challenge (in my mind) is open to interpretation, by the repeated use of the word "structure". I think this is an accepatable interpretation of a structure, and I like that it does emphasize some emotions. Butterflies generally have a happy feel, but this makes me feel sad and sympathetic, because of their isolation. Well done
Challenge description: Take a picture of a structure in a way that emphasizes emotional content rather than form. Subject should be identifiable as a structure, and although human elements can appear in the image, it should be predominantly about the building
Yet, I don't see a building.
I really hope others see a building... I really like this image (but not for this topic).
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