12 - Filming the Everyday: Between Aesthetics and Politics

Summary

Abstract

Photography and aesthetics of the everyday are closely related because both seem to go beyond the scope of the arts. Photography is an art particularly suited to this everyday aesthetics, not only because photography takes everyday life as its subject, but also because it challenges the distinction between the arts and popular culture. However, since the technology of photography has made great progress over the past hundred years, and accordingly, our conception of photography as art has changed dramatically. In this chapter, three Chinese artists from different periods are used to illustrate the changes in our conception of photography as art. The chapter argues that, strictly speaking, the aesthetics of everyday life is only possible when surveillance camera technology is widely used. Of course, the questions raised by surveillance footage are not only aesthetic, but also political.

Keywords: everyday aesthetics, photography, surveillance cameras, Chinese aesthetics, technology

Photography and everyday aesthetics are closely related because both seem to go beyond the scope of the arts. “Everyday aesthetics,” according to Crispin Sartwell's definition, “refers to the possibility of aesthetic experience of non-art objects and events, as well as to a current movement within the field of philosophy of art which rejects or puts into question distinctions such as those between fine and popular art, art and craft, and aesthetic and non-aesthetic experiences.” Photography is an art particularly suited to this everyday aesthetics, not only because photography takes everyday life as its subject but also because it challenges the distinction between the arts and popular culture. However, since the technology of photography has made significant progress over the past hundred years, our conception of photography as an art has changed dramatically. In this chapter, I select three Chinese artists from different periods to illustrate the changes in our conception of photography as art. I will argue that strictly speaking, the aesthetics of everyday life is only possible when surveillance camera technology is widely used. Of course, the questions raised by the surveillance footage are not only aesthetic but also political.

The Ontology of Photography

For some aestheticians, photography is hardly considered an art because it somehow threatens the ontological status of art as representation. André Bazin claims: “The photographic image is the object itself, the object free from the conditions of time and space that govern it.”