The digitalization of the image - A pixelated future
Niklas Kullström · Aaltodoc (Aalto University) · 2017
The digitalization of photography has been ongoing for the past 20 years. We have progressed through hard resistance and modest acceptance, to the current state of total adoption of digitalization. Despite this, digital photography is still mainly a simulation of analogue technology and technique. Theories and voices have however been raised through the years for a more holistic view of digital imaging, and the convergence of digital photography into the wider realm of digital image making, breaking the bond with its analogue past. My thesis “The Digitalization of the Image – A Pixelated Future” is a survey into the metamorphosing essence of the photograph, an insight into its new digital aesthetics, a dive into social media and new ways of distribution, and a look at what the future holds in terms of augmented and virtual reality. All topics and fields of exploration that photographers and image makers of today should find essential and interesting in relation to their work. I have immersed myself in these questions through my own work and series of photographic and media art, which are also used extensively as examples and case studies in the thesis. The main hypothesis is that photography as we knew it for the past 180 years is gone. Photography has been replaced by a generic, formless amoeba by the name of digital imaging. Secondly, the old aesthetic values of analogue photography have lost relevance when applied to digital images, and should be discarded in favour of the inherent aesthetic values of digital images. Third, social media and consumer generated images distributed through networks have become the dominant form of visual images consumed and created, arguing for a rekindled need of media education. Theoretically the work is balanced with writings on photography and its nature from various sources. We have classic text by Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes and Walter Benjamin, opposed by theoreticians on digital imaging, Charlie Gere, Fred Ritchin and W. J. Mitchell. Just to name a few of the voices who come to bear in the thesis. Relevant material is presented in an open dialogue with my own views and findings on the various topics of the thesis. The findings and conclusions, as well as some questions left open in wait for future developments in the field of digital imaging, have all grown to fruition during my personal explorations into digital imaging. An exploration that has spanned nearly two decades, centring around both still and film production, and extensive theoretical research. It can be concluded, that digital imaging is on the verge of replacing the old concepts of analogue photography brought over to digital photography, with new a more universal once. A blurring of boundaries between still and moving images has already happened, both with technology and practice. Social media and new distribution channels provided by the Internet have disrupted the old structures of traditional media. Consumers have become both producers of visual content and the largest distributors of it. We are already living in the future, even if we stubbornly cling to the past and try to simulate it with new technology. Reality as we know it will change with an ever-increasing pace, taking soon the step over to augmented and virtual reality. Current and future image makers should consider what it really means to create images in a digital universe, and take steps in order to stay on top of changes and guide the direction of trends and progress.