It has not been—it is. The signaletic transformation of photography

Abstract

Inspired by the concept of “the signaletic,” this article proposes a new understanding of photography as a social and performative device related to everyday life, to communication, and to presence. Today photography is a ubiquitous, social activity to a much larger extent than before the digital revolution and the introduction of the Internet, creating relational situations and communication as well as new affective involvements between human bodies and the photographic, media-convergent technologies. In the light of this epistemological change, the medium of photography demands a theoretical reformulation, and contemporary art works can help us articulate “the signaletic paradigm” in photography. To illustrate this, the article includes an analysis of Christian Marclay's prize winning “The Clock” and David Claerbout's “Sections of a Happy Moment”. It is my argument that although the traditional photography, such as the early photography theories by Bazin and Barthes have described, confirmed “what-has-been” (Barthes) and fulfilled a “mumification desire” (Bazin), the new digital practices at the Internet show “what-is-going-on” (presence) and thereby rather fulfills the user's existential desire to “feel time.”Mette Sandbye currently researches the relationship between amateur photography and collective history since the 1960s. She was the editor of the first Danish history of photography (Dansk Fotografihistorie, 2004), and she has published numerous books and articles on contemporary art photography and photography as part of the visual culture.