Reportage from the Aesthetic Edge

Randall Packer

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Self Surveillance

I point a camera directly in my face, to comprehend the confusion… The pose: it’s all just a reflection. An act, driven by the seduction of the camera. Ah yes, to live in the dream of the pose. The image. Unencumbered by the separation of what is real and what is not. A new construction. The self, self-made. No looking back. No haunting nightmares. Just the perfection of the moment. Erased memory… Expose the creative process in front of and for the camera… I now herald my life as an artist in front of the camera for the purpose of living in the post reality (show)… The camera never blinks, always, watching, in a surveilled world the camera is aimed… everywhere, the watchful, unblinking eye of the lens… Studio Ambience: combined with the artist surveillance, production surveillance, transformational, working, under the watchful eye of the camera… Being under surveillance + opening up to the world is a form of catharsis… I believe there is something nearly uncontrollably seductive about being connected, about being part of the vast network… We no longer live private lives: everything is instagrammed, shared and distributed. We are our own self-surveillers. We are the portraitors of our everyday reality. We are storytellers, exhibitionists and voyeurs all at once… It’s not about facing the camera, it’s about the camera facing me. I am in the bunker and I am not looking out, the viewer is looking in… Is this some kind of exercise in voyeurism? No I respond, it is an act that is not unlike the everyday actions we all engage in via our media of choice.

  • The Challenge to Scale Up for TRUMPological Times (4/15/2019)
  • Selfie Buddha (5/28/2018)
  • The Art of Self-Surveillance (9/30/2015)
  • Giving up your Data (3/13/2014)
  • The Secret Lives of the Rich and Famous (9/19/2012)
  • Living publicly online (9/6/2012)
  • Always Seeing, Always Watching (8/27/2012)
  • The total embrace of the image (1/12/2011)
  • And then it came rushing through my head (12/7/2010)

Searching is Good

Reportage from the Aesthetic Edge
Randall Packer © 2020
Zakros