The magnetism is not just on the name of the camera (MAgnetic VIdeo CAmera), but in the images. They attract themselves, they repel and then they attract again.

When one think on the visual texture of these pictures, they look old.The 0.03 MP resolution determines what and how we see.

But, what (and how) is to work now with a camera of 1998?

This images take the layout of the now obsolete image bank books:  landsccapes, advertising, animals, between other subjeccts. ?
Which is the value of the digital images? How can the images build, keep and destroy its value?

Maybe because of the force of the attraction in the magnetism and beyond all ¿disadvantages? the photos become, once again, a strange and unexpected beauty.

 

 

Activating our Archives for 2021 places focus on protest and play as ways in which personal expression can help us move through life. Into a second year of Covid, with a world still in the grip of turmoil and tragedy, we have had to adapt our lives to what has been termed a new normal. The conditions of Covid and the restrictions to our freedoms and movements, have heightened a sense of the biopolitics at play across societies and this has further highlighted the injustices that people face. This has been reflected in the growing number of public protests we’ve witnessed in the past year, but also revealed a serious need for retreat and a search for individual freedom and joy. So, in addition to becoming more politically active we’ve also become in desperate need to seek forms of expression, especially through play and playfulness. These seemingly opposite activities are in fact, two sides of the same coin when we appreciate a pronounced need to assert our individuality and presence in the world. These outpourings of expression and emotion are vital as our collective, contained and monitored selves, release and reclaim our feelings in order to feel free again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year in Activating our Archives, through the dual themes of protest and play, we will ask participants to explore their feelings and their personal lives using photographs, film, digital images and archives. The programme this year responds to ideas that emerge from the work of Samson Kambalu, an artist who will be part of Modern Art Oxford’s exhibition programme in summer 2021. In a series of workshops, through presentations, discussions, group and individual creative projects, we will examine the role of the image in activism, protest, subversion and resistance and also look at how images create a sense of playfulness, fun and humour. Through social media and digital culture today, images have been increasingly used in absurd and humorous ways despite the serious nature of events that have unfolded around us. Platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram help us forge a sense of perspective through memes and through short edited videos and we will explore how these images contrast in amongst the flow of images through news media and television. Through the open call, participants will be led through a six-week programme creating their own forms of protest and expressions of play with the culmination of an event held at Fusion Arts after the last workshop to screen and display the results. In addition to this, participants will be invited to contribute to the #activatingourarchives hashtag and be featured through the Modern Art Oxford blog posts and Instagram takeovers.