Vilnius Academy of Arts Photography and Media Arts M.A. Thesis DOCUMENTARY SPECTACLE DOKUMENTINIS SPEKTAKLIS Mikko Elias Waltari Kaimelio g. 20, LT-07100 Vilnius [email protected] supervisor: Associate Professor Dr. Agnė Narušytė Vilnius 2017 DOCUMENTARY SPECTACLE documentary spectacle abstract ............................................................................3 a statement ......................................................................5 introduction ....................................................................6 I (the truth) ....................................................................10 II (post-truth) ................................................................20 III (lies) .........................................................................23 IV (spectacle) ................................................................26 V (reality hunger) .........................................................29 VI (documentary) .........................................................35 VII (rhetorics) ...............................................................48 VIII (art) .......................................................................51 IX (post-documentary) .................................................55 pictures .........................................................................67 conclusions ...................................................................71 list of literature .............................................................74 web-articles ..................................................................77 summary .......................................................................80 santrauka .......................................................................83 !2 / !85 documentary spectacle abstract Mikko Waltari’s MA-thesis Documentary Spectacle rumbles through truthlikeness, post-truth, lies, documentary, spectacle, rhetorics, art, reality-hunger, and post-documentary in nine chapters - nine different views to representing reality. At the same time, the society of the spectacle is not only manipulated by images, but separated further in the virtual reality of social media, where alternative facts and fake news dominate the discussion. The concept of truthlikeness belongs to philosophy of science, but little discussed in connection to humanities and arts. Understanding the process of simplification by the means of abstraction and idealisation could help in evaluating the documentary truth. Overcoming the documentary’s concerns of moral, ethics, objectivity, and authenticity, late photography intends to represent world in a more graspable form. Such documentary, focusing on the representation of the aftermath of events in tableaux hung on the museum wall, is called post-documentary, or - documentary spectacle. keywords: documentary, photography, post-documentary, spectacle, truth, truthlikeness !3 / !85 documentary spectacle !4 / !85 documentary spectacle a statement i was thrown into this world - got to thinking about it. !5 / !85 introduction documentary spectacle introduction Documentary has been a purpose of photography since the very beginning. They both, photography and documentary, have had their crisis. The crisis had as much to do with the ontology of the photograph as with the concept of truth. While the crises may be over, the discussion continues. Continuation is natural, since not only the practices but the definitions need to be updated to match the changing world; production, distribution, and consuming of photographs are being transformed greatly with digitalisation. In our post-truth era pseudo-scientific healers and the preachers of the strangest cults are taking over people's minds, political populism using emotional arguments for the causes of inequality in the western countries is rising its head ever higher, controversial personal opinions in the social media are taken as facts, and the news-media seem to be divided into two opposite ends of truth- telling. The spectacle keeps going on by repeating the lies to the extent that not just the ordinary people but many educated individuals project their hopes on fake messiahs promising to heal their troubles. We are living a period that is nearly as confusing as the times preceding the world-wars, a period when the guilt of the elite and the immigrants is taken for granted and when the truth is being considered of secondary importance. For a long time photographs have been the most effective tools in spreading reliable information. While technological advancement has made it easier than ever to manipulate the photographic reality, photographs are still considered the proof of truth. But, thinking logically, any picture alone is worthless evidence. It requires accompanying words to become as such: one has to claim that something has been, and that that something is shown in the photograph, which is true to its subject. Seeking for the truth is hard work. There is no definition, no formula to which the news stream could be forced on. We must filtrate spam, use our knowledge of history and cross-reference the flood of information to estimate which particular story is true. I wonder if we actually care – or do !6 / !85 introduction documentary spectacle we prefer to not see the truth? The alternative realities offered to us on silver plate are easier to digest, aren’t they? If to take aynrandian1 objectivism seriously, we are very much alone with the decision while pursuing our happiness. The original thought of documentary spectacle was to continue my BA-project plays. Instead of using my subjective view on the matter at hand, I wanted to introduce the protagonists own, independent view. As a co-incidence, I was invited to take part in a photography project in Finland throughout the year 2016. The experience made me doubt the objectivity of such an approach, similar to my planned project. But there was also my own personality in play – personality that, despite the intrigues in directing actors in constructed photographs, prefers to see things from afar, avoiding such a close contact with strangers that the plays require. The uncomfortable feelings I went through while working on my photographs didn’t seem to let go after creating a dozen of them. As a consequence of my unnatural position as an artist, I decided to find a more honest style to myself. I believe that the decision has increased the truthlikeness of my work accordingly. My study includes nine topics, which are presented as separate essays. However, the truth is the common denominator in each of them. It is not possible to consider these subjects within the given space, from every point of view and in high detail. Thus, the overall picture in the thesis is a documentary of a kind, created while looking at the world from afar and from my point of view. I have used various source-materials ranging from printed and electronic literature on the topics, and researching articles that I have found in academia.edu and other websites to news articles from various medias that I follow. I have also used on-line encyclopaedias and wikipedia I was not able to access the original literature in question, but in such cases I have tried to cross-reference the information with other possible sources in the net. Discussions on photography, documentary, and truth have been going on for ages. Since many of the previously known truths have been proven untrue, and also the concept of truth seems to be unclear, I hope to introduce a relatively new concept to my audience (whoever it may be, besides 1 Aynrandian objectivism is a philosophy developed by Ayn Rand in the USA during the 20th century. It says among other things: 1.Pursue your own happiness as your highest moral aim. 2.Prosper by treating others as individuals, trading value for value. The loneliness in keeping one’s own convictions becomes obvious in her fictional work The Fountainhead (1936). Ayn Rand, https://www.aynrand.org/ideas/overview (04.06.2017) !7 / !85 introduction documentary spectacle me); truthlikeness (or verisimilitude) is a modern concept used in the philosophy of science since 1960 but less in discussions connected to arts. Abstraction and idealisation are methods of simplification in the concept of truthlikness, and have also opened to me a fresh view to (often so confusing) contemporary art. While the term truthlikeness appears in many theoretical texts on art and documentary frequently, they lack specification for the meaning of the term – giving an understanding that its use is merely rhetorical instead of connected to the above mentioned concept. However, I contacted Ilkka Niiniluoto, professor emeritus and an author of several books on truhlikeness, receiving a short email2 confirming that there are possible uses of verisimilitude on the field of humanities. Another thing worth mentioning here is related to Svetlana Alpers’ theory of cartography in Dutch paintings, which led me to read Béatrice Han-Pile’s essay, arguing against Alpers view, with the help of Heidegger’s unworlding in Vermeer’s paintings. Also, Aristotle’s dramatic theory of mimesis states that for a piece of art to hold significance or persuasion for an audience, or its ability to cause catharsis, it must have grounding in reality. In this respect, cartography and unworlding meeting in a work of art seems rather logical. Then there are equally important sources, like Gombrich's Art and Illusion, specifically on the role of label, and Michael Fried's accounts on theatricality and photography.