experimental print, book binding and trend forecast
Pause is a process-led, experimental print project. It all began with trend research into today's photography culture and our social media behavior. Growing from Susan Sontag's essays on photography, I explored the "mental pollution" of digital imagery, my generation's addiction to aesthetic consumerism, and the validation of experience through posting photos. Countering this "chronic digital chaos", two major trend movements are developing: optimistic nihilism and political or algorithmic disruption. I translated these contrary trajectories through print and bookmaking. I deliberately exposed myself to an analog and entirely offline process for the assembling first part of my book (portrayed in an all-white, handwritten, and screen-printed chapter). For the latter chapter, I utilised entirely digital methods: writing in conversation with ChatGPT, curating digital photography, and applying digital printing. The final book format aims to portray my own explorations, creative development, and the constant shifting between offline idealisation and dump scrolling.
> caption: The process started with an exploration of our aesthetic obsession with the ordinary, with the picture-taking of banal everyday moments, with the chronic sharing of our life online. I was particularly interested in our consumption of photography in a digital age looking at contemporary artists such as Sam Youkilis and Wolfgang Tillmans. I built upon this tension of avant-garde practice and commercialisation of photography engaging in photography, writing, and print making which resulted in the final print format. "Pause" highlights the exploration, viewing the process and failure as the means of the final project.
Next: [Breaking the N(F)orm]
> credits: Sarah Luisa Kuhlewind