What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.
The digital medium is an infinitely mutable, blank slate. The 1’s and 0’s that assume the form of images and videos obey the creator’s will to change on a whim and to convey the message the creator of the artifact intends. “Fluidity of the digital” means that digital artifacts, unlike analog ones, are subject to manipulation and alteration, such that the original artifact may not even be able to be perceived through the edited version. A “fluid” medium like digital imaging and photography is deceiving, as editing an image may change the impression of it from one day to the next. The deceit comes in the form of harm. An image or video edited to provide amusement may be a form of positive manipulation; however, the manipulation may be a form of advancing political agendas, propoganda, or defamation. An example of such, aside from the famous OJ Simpson heavily darkened and contrasted TIME’s magazine photo, is the omission of political statements.
A New Jersey high schooler’s yearbook picture was edited. The boy in the article states that he wore the shirt to document what was happening in the country at the time. He was not punished or penalized for wearing the shirt to school. The Trump campaign banner was omitted from the final yearbook print, a move by the school to seemingly inhibit the spread of a political idea. This type of manipulation comes with baggage: not only is this omission a dangerous road down the path of suppressing political expression, it is also a way to alter history. The image now leaves a new impression. Instead of a boy who wore a Trump shirt to make a statement, he is now a boy just wearing a simple black shirt. The fluidity of digital enables fluid impressions.
Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (e.g. text, video, virtual reality, books).
If digital photography is the news headline, digital video is the article. Digital video provides more than photography — 24 times more, or perhaps 60 or 240 times more depending on how many frames per second the video is. Videos are a visual and temporal art. Compared to photography, they are able to create discussion more ambiguous or more specific discussion on a topic. Photos are only able to generate abstracted discussion, because a photo is a sentence; it can only say one thing and the rest is up to interpretation. A video, however, can tell you many things and leave less up to interpretation.