Retracings

These readings raise a lot more questions for me. Curious to see what type of work the artists and groups within the reading do, I visited their websites and info available on the web. Then I start to wonder if the information found on the internet, if it was not the artist’s own website, is just another person’s viewpoint and I don’t really know where they are coming from. Then I start to think about artists having their own way of looking at their work and presented with their own bias. Then my head explodes.
The readings seem to question authenticity and truth in photographs, images and archives depending upon the viewer or archivist. Will our individual imagination glean from the image what it will based on our knowledge and cultural influences or can an archive and archivist influence the meaning? Then I think...Isn't the question of what truth and authenticity is an age old question not just a new phenomenon of contemporary post modern thought? But then, what do I know...

This reading led me to look into Edward Said’s book Orientalism (1978). Said has some interesting and valid viewpoints with the idea of “knowing the Orient” becomes part of the project of dominating it and the influence of knowledge, power and greed with this domination. There are arguments countering his viewpoints that have valid reasonings as well. The subsequent firestorm he set off with this book in academia goes on to this day.