alfredo Jaar

"Jaar refuses to make a choice between politics or ethics and aesthetics, believing, with Godard, that "whichever one you choose, you will always find the other one at the end of the road""

Another artist I'm fond of -Paul Chan -- also known for making "political" art --takes a different approach -- he strives to keep the two roles and identities separate. But back to Jaar....

I was looking at and reading through Jaar's Rawanda project this morning. I read the essay that went with it by David Levi Strauss. I am interested in the comments about photo-journalism and their failure to move us to action. the article asserts that the media presents the images in such a way that they make us feel relieved that such horrors are not happening to us or that we are simply voyeurs-- seeing the photos is so totally separated from the reality, that it pacifies and numbs us, rather than motivates us.

"But the camera never manages to record what your eyes see, or what you feel at the moment. The camera always creates a new reality. I have always been concerned with the disjunction between experience and what can be recorded photographically.” --jaar

This idea of whether art can move us to action is a complicated one, and I think very relevent to my work. I keep going back and forth on whether its enough for the project and the images to just convey an idea (how much social distance exists between the neighborhoods which are geographically close) or is it essential that people interact using the video conferencing.

Also, I am comparing the virtual experience with the real one-- a virtual route with the route of the bus. The experience of talking via video versus going and talking with people in the neighborhood.