Human interaction in a technological society : a photographic essay

Abstract

Through the advent of technological advancement global communication has been greatly increased. Information can be emitted and received instantaneously through satellite transmission systems. Saturation of the airways continuously bathes the human in video and audio imagery. Dependence on human physical labor has been reduced by the current trend of transporting information rather than materials. Entertainment, Education, Religion, Politics, Commerce and Medicine, are continuously adapting and implementing new technological developments. Technology has created an attitude of increased expectation of instant fulfillment. Social behavior adapts and revises itself with the influx of contemporary mores delivered by the communications medium. If television is the illusion of reality, what is the reality of the illusion? The thesis consists of two parts, (1) a written investigation of observed influences created through communicative technologies and (2) a photographic essay of present and possible attitudes that result from audio/video technological complexity. The photographic essay is not an attempt to document interaction as it "normally" appears in society, but to spot human interaction through a ''surrealistic" approach. The photographic presentation consists of nine (9) images, (8-black and white and 1-color), each approximately 19"x23", hinged between acid-free ragboard and presented under glass. They will be exhibited at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at M.I.T. during the month of January thru mid-March. The thesis book is constructed with the written material in the first section and the photographic essay in the second represented as reduced black and white, photo- screened images accompanied their respective titles and true dimensions.