A Photographic Critique of Visual Information

Contemporary concerns around the control of visual information inspired the work of Greek photographer Michael Almiroudis who looks to question our perception of reality through the vision of an ophthalmoscope.

Contemporary concerns around the control of visual information inspired the work of Greek photographer Michael Almiroudis who looks to question our perception of reality through the vision of an ophthalmoscope.

The formation and operation of the expanded "form" - "information" started being confused from the early 1980s to the early 21st century with the so-called development of the "information society". The suggestion of "informationalism" or "information explosion" from visual media has influenced the aspects of social organisation and structure.

While the biopolitics of the post-industrial society was looking for new ways to manipulate the creation, distribution, and control of visual information; many spoke about visual information as a tool of capitalism. In particular, Manuel Castells considered this awareness as a new technological example that is analysed from the "production, processing and transmission of visual information" which has gradually become a "fundamental source of productivity and power".

Negri and Hardt introduce thinking about the "visual discourse" of the information society by saying that making an image will be the work that produces intangible products such as knowledge, information, communication, emotional relationships ready for consumption by the consumer. Similarly, Bell, Peter Otto and Philipp Sonntag stated that an information society is a society where the majority of workers work in information positions and deal with information, signals, symbols and images more than with energy and matter as was the case in the industrial society. Finally, similarly, Alvin Toffler in Future Shock analyses the "knowledge" - "information" within this new social structure by saying that "the central resource in this diptych contains a social space that includes general data, images, symbols, culture, ideology, aspirations and values".

Beginning with these theoretical concerns, I attempted to think through a visual transference project of this critique, starting an absurd allegorical narrative by an American ophthalmoscope of the 1980s. This ophthalmoscope portrays captions, signs, images, symbols and icons by alternating the shaping of images of black and white images in monochrome RGB digital matrix images. As the viewer reaches the end of the ophthalmoscope at the exit of his eye from it, the ophthalmoscope has been converted into VR Glasses.

Words and Pictures by Michael Almiroudis.

Michael Almiroudis (b. 1995) is a conceptualisation and semiotics visual artist based in Athens . He is graduate in BA Photography from Middlesex University through AKTO college. He believes that every picture has "materialistic stratifications" related to cultural conventions. He is an advocate of non-representation and interpretive indeterminacy of the world. Some of his photos have published online for MoMA San Francisco, Der Greif, Ello Photography, Phases Magazine, Eyescape Magazine, Kiosk Der Demokratie, Street view photography, 24 Hour project, Whitelight Editions. His recent photo exhibitions including Benaki Museum: Athens Photo Festival 2018 - Young Greek Photographers, Benaki Museum: Athens Photo Festival 2017, APhF Marathon: "City of errors", Float Gallery: Found & Lost, Void Gallery: “Nature of indeterminacy”.

You can follow Michael on PHmuseum and Instagram.

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This feature is part of Story of the Week, a selection of relevant projects from our community handpicked by the PHmuseum curators.