The Poor Image Assignment 

Here is the Google Drive link to the product of my Assignment:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BXUsejzZCkMb7SnGCq4OmllbW3r_Qmcs/view?usp=drive_link 

The idea of inevitable transformation in Hito Steyerl's essay "In Defence of the Poor Image" is a key theme I explored in my own work. Inspired by Steyerl's idea of never-ending transformation in media, my work expands on that and integrates it with my own growth as a human being. 

Growth defines what my audio intends to capture. Compiled of audios of myself--young, naive, and infatuated by wonder--I have created an honest work that is my upbringing. The research that went into the source files began with a silly idea of scouring old videos of my youth posted from my parents' and my own Facebook accounts. I saw moments of who I was back then, and realized how similar I was then to who I am now. What I found strange, however, is how all of these seemingly core memories have just faded into oblivion, as if the younger version of me had died. What began as a joke became something more vulnerable. I wanted to connect the essay's idea of media circulation as a mirror to human growth and memory. 

My goal with my own project, reflecting Steyerl's idea of re-circulating older media, was to revive myself. Realistically, Revival is impossible, but I could do my best to paint a feeling of my youth and try my best to share what these memories mean to me with the public. My work intends to invoke a feeling of nostalgia but also restless anticipation. Although cliché, the saying that time will move quick and catch up to you, in the process of this project, I had only come to realize was true. It makes me wonder if moments from the present will be forgotten when I am even older. The scary thing is how young I am and how many potential memories I could be losing in the future. Finding those moments encoded into Facebook is a treasure that has been rediscovered. Without them, I would not have been able to revive my past.

The medium I have decided to use, audio recording, further transformed the growth aspect as it is a time based media. Treating it almost like a song, my project implements musical elements like the rising tempo of the echoing beat and the musical audio files, because music was and still is a big influence in my identity and growth. Although coincidental, the use of my karaoke machine to degrade the audio files introduces a cultural aspect to the entire project. My home country is ingrained in singing and karaoke, and using it in my work symbolizes an unrealized link to my past. Furthermore, the effects of the karaoke machine created a ghastly aesthetic that I did not anticipate but adapted to. The echoes that the machine amplified created the ephemeral notion of nostalgia. It was intentional that the audio be incoherent to symbolize blurry memories. Like an anxious heartbeat, the echoes of the hitting beat were to pull the listener into the work and feel what stress in the speed of time may feel like.

In conclusion, Hito Steyerl's essay's ideas of revival and transformation in media have inspired me to reflect on my own being and personally relate to poor images as a poor image myself.