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A review by noitsjustnate
The Wretched of the Screen by Hito Steyerl
5.0
Like several other comments have stated, “In Defense of the Poor Image” and “The Spam of Earth” are the definitive takeaways. I’ll be reflecting on this collection of essays for a long time. As a reader relatively new to philosophies surrounding images previous readings in the realm of architecture theory were very complimentary, namely phenomenologists like juhani Pollasmaa and other theorists like Foucault and Keller Easterling.
Steyerl’s discussion of post-production really blew my perception of architectural rendering wide open. Untapped social classes of images influence much of the discussions around the “Money-Shot” and the redundant production of conceptual drawings, diagrams and images. There’s a paternalistic approach to the communication with the client that the author really taps into; as the images communicate with us as much as an architect communicates to their employer(though the debate of architecture as a service rather than an artistic medium changes this communication greatly). Even current innovations in crypto-currencies, NFT’s, and blockchain introduce even more classes of images, more streams of communication and more “spam” for Steyerl to observe.
As a designer and artist I’ll surely have a lot to recollect on, and hope to come back to these essays again!
Steyerl’s discussion of post-production really blew my perception of architectural rendering wide open. Untapped social classes of images influence much of the discussions around the “Money-Shot” and the redundant production of conceptual drawings, diagrams and images. There’s a paternalistic approach to the communication with the client that the author really taps into; as the images communicate with us as much as an architect communicates to their employer(though the debate of architecture as a service rather than an artistic medium changes this communication greatly). Even current innovations in crypto-currencies, NFT’s, and blockchain introduce even more classes of images, more streams of communication and more “spam” for Steyerl to observe.
As a designer and artist I’ll surely have a lot to recollect on, and hope to come back to these essays again!