Photographic social media, designed landscapes and urban, place-based visibilities: in search of friction

Abstract

Beginning from the double premise that, particularly in the city, designed landscapes function as a socially and culturally powerful form of visual media, and that they do so in interaction with other visual media forms, this paper seeks to both investigate and challenge what is taken as a reciprocal shaping of urban visibilities. This investigation is occasioned primarily by the rise of digital and networked photographies, and the disruptive potential they seem to hold with respect to this reciprocal influence. Drawing on theories of materialist media ecology, it proceeds by way of an interpretative experiment in relation to a set of photographs of a park, as circulated on Instagram. I ask, can social media images be seen as unintentionally disruptive of the reciprocity between landscape and photography, and if so, what are the avenues through which they might then become politically productive? My principal aims in doing so are (1) to explore an approach to photographic interpretation and analysis that is appropriate to the contexts of production and circulation provided by photographic social media; and (2) to identify possible strategies or points of future intervention on behalf of alternative or frictional visibilities.