Tunnel Vision

Tunnel Vision

There is no escape from the vicious cycle of the attention grabbing gimmick. It’s in publicity, in politics, in religion, in art, in everyday life. We’re afraid of going unnoticed so we brand ourselves… loudly, through our statements, by the way we talk, we dress, and undress, the images we produce and the symbols we choose in our imagery, the polemic we create.

By doing this with the sole purpose of being “out there” we loose focus, we loose depth; we develop a tunnel vision in our representation of ideas. It’s not about the message or a personal path of discovery anymore; it’s all about the spectacle, the bling, and the aesthetics. It’s a trap, a dark pit where we fall ever deeper into the ridicule and the excess.

Uno

14h54 Wednesday
03, August
2011
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45 Comments
 
  1. Sthe Ngcobo

    Word....!

  2. Buchu

    WORD

    What is the antidote to the tunnel vision?
    For me its about being grounded,
    knowing where you come from and where you're going,
    what you stand for....
    Damn its good to be back on 75

  3. Fluxd

    HYPOCRITE...*hides*

  4. Uno

    @Fluxd: Yours is a big head, but it seems that the hat fits...

  5. Sthe Ngcobo

    Buchu,my grand father once told me a story about a horse,it's pride and it's rider...!
    As big and strong any horse might be,it's sense of direction is limited to the blinders it's rider puts around it,giving it no control over where it might want to go on it's own accord.
    Hence some of us always sees a need to compete, nurse our egos and inflate our heads with immediate success to a point where we think we're above all and everyone...!

  6. Fluxd

    hehehehe Sthe you kill me i wonder whos ego is rising in this oven cos either way i can still see it, sometimes the man with bigger gun wins the battle and well im half blind and there in the right corner i can still see the blasted mark. @Uno if you think i have a big ego well maybe i do and if that hat fits then clearly he who childishly persues anothers endevours and treatment of his own work is truly foolish to think he is the better man.....Mirrors are usually a great place to start its irrelevant what and how large my logo is when i can clearly see urs it might not take up as much visual space but it does the exact same thing......

  7. Fluxd

    Alas I Tire of this 75 bickering....what a bore

    D

    The spectacle continues..
    People 75 here too worried about what other people are up to rather than going about their own processes.
    Life is too short to be fixated on whether people will act the way you want them too. Right or wrong, people will be "gimmicky", "blingy" or loud if they need/want to be.

    Freedom of choice it's up to the individual

    Alas, what do I know? Im out,
    Peace

  8. Fluxd

    Lol AND anyway who told you that you were the greatest thing since the internet cos ima need bitch slap the hell out the genie-ASS.

  9. Fluxd

    Infact Uno is doing the same thing, creating ripples of ur perspective trying to drown us with it forgetin that this little crusade hes on is just another gimmick wether its for publicity reasons or not hes just aiming at trying to prove hes smart maybe he is but that doesnt mean that we will all acknowledge ur smarts as intelligence....the question is are you here to look at photography or are you to see how people brand their work.

  10. Fluxd

    75 people like you make it dry really.....

  11. Buchu

    I think I missed something??

  12. Fluxd

    Yes quite a lot....

  13. Greer

    WORD. I often feel lost in this low concept (content), high aesthetic world we live in.

  14. Greer

    @Fluxd: don't follow.

  15. Uno

    Fluxd, you need to chill a bit man. And while you're at it try to work on your manners too.
    I didn't ask you to comment on this, didn't make it directed at you, it's a general comment to our society not to you or your work, if you're so distort maybe I touched a sensitive nerve?
    It's not a crusade either, it's my photo and my comment, based on what I was thinking about at the time.
    I'm not trying to change anyone here, it's a personal realization that came through observation and that I decided to share. It's your choice to engage or not with it.
    Your comments are not constructive, they are immature and lack substance, no matter how loud they are.
    Let's be civil and say what we have to say without being aggressive, it's about exchanging ideas and learning from one another, it's not a fist fight to prove your masculinity.
    Peace.

  16. lebogang nkoane

    ^ cosign with Sthe, Uno, Greer and Buchu — I feel like there is something we missing out on, something essential.

    I think we are the edge of connecting, well the 'net makes it easier to connect, but we are not 'connecting', we are just numbers: friends, followers, likes, pages, etc;

    I don't know, I just feel that something essential is missing or being eroded, and this applies to most things, in my perspective, web, tv, radio, photography, film, design, creativity, self expression, art, … even business.

    But, ja— like Buchu said, what's the antidote.

  17. Fluxd

    firstly Uno im here for what the site was made for :photographic appreciation but the past week seems ro have been about branding depreciation. Secondly you,re on 75 and as i recall theres a comment block for me and others to use. @LN maybe people shud just shut their mouths about how much better their branding skills are and start looking the pictures like the site intended... Anyway this has spoilt my perception ofsome of the graphers on 75 in fact it has spoilt. Im the whole experience ive had here. I, getting a facebook vibe creaping into one of my fave sites and can only give it a thumbs down.

  18. Fluxd

    Uno get over urself man one minute its branding the next is assumptions about a battle of who has the bigger penis come bra u knew what was gona happen when u posted the comment so dnt act like its an attack, and by the can u practise ur preach and start being constructive all ive heard from you is negative shit.

  19. lebogang nkoane

    @Fluxd— amma sit this one out,

    but one thing is for sure: "people shud shut thier mouths" is NOT what 75 about— freedom of expression implies somebody out there (and in here) will express themselves: to agree or disagree that's up to you.

    I can't convince you to stay or go— at the same time, I or 75, can't make you enjoy the experience or hate the experience, that, you are at liberty to decide for yourself.

    In short simple Ebonics: it's all up-to you, how you react or interact.

  20. Sthe Ngcobo

    @ Fluxd, I dare say I stand corrected,I got nothing to say nor to deffend,if you had read my response to what the foot note on the photo asked,you would have noticed that this was no direct reply to your comment.
    I am not one to defend my point when there is no reason to,nor am I one driven by an ego........as for I thinking I am the greatest thing since the internet,well,that's your opinion. You seem to think everyone's out to get you and you need to shoot them down before they get to you.
    Ungixolele bhuti,bekungadokwe ligayelwe mina leli,kube impazamo kwelami icala.
    As for you bitch slapping whoever that was intended to,angazi.......

    Lebogang,back on my first posting: in addition to what I said,I reckon fearing to stand up to social norms does add on to the "tunnel mentality"......I can't really find nor see an easy solution to that or how we can beat that perception and try move on on a different stride and renewed ambition to see things differently.

    @Buchu: how do we stay grounded when we're constantly urged to reach out for the stars and soar like eagles in the sky!?
    Culturally,what we're exposed to does determine how we deal with the topic/question in hand......
    What's your take on that?

  21. Fluxd

    I like the sounds of thatI like the sounds of that. And yes it is up to me what i do next or how i interact and think if someone nothing constructive to say about my imagery or how i treat it they shud SHUT UP....

  22. Uno

    @Fluxd: I don't mind you saying what you have to say, I just think that the way in which you're saying it is too loud and unecessary, with all the name calling and stuff, we're all grown ups and don't get easily offended, it just becomes difficult to debate serious stuff with someone shouting all the time... one question: is the penis size the only thing that defines masculinity for you?

    @Buchu, Sthe, Greer, Lebogang: I think what we're discussing here is the basis of modernity as defined by Jean Baudrillard:

    “Modernity provokes on all levels an aesthetics of rupture, of individual creativity and of innovation that is everywhere marked by the sociological phenomen of the avant-garde… and by the increasingly more outspoken destruction of traditional forms… Modernity is radicalized into momentaneous change, into a continuous travelling, and thus its meaning changes. It gradually loses each substantial value, each ethical and philosophical ideology of progress that sustained it at the outset, and it becomes an aesthetics of change for the sake of change…In the end, modernity purely and simply coincides with fashion, which at the same time means the end of modernity.”

  23. lebogang nkoane

    Dam that Jean Baudrillard! ouch! that hurts!

    So, we are doomed— we are heading straight through the tunnel, knowing full well, when we get there we will reject the vary same thing we were fighting for.

    I guess, then, we gotta be counter-counter-revolutionary, always, lol!

  24. Uno

    @Sthe: I believe that are certain things to which one should be grounded, certain values of equality, the golden rule "don't do unto others what you don't like to be done unto you", freedom of thought and expression, to name just a few...these are of course constant debates as society, technology and science breaks new ground and where new situations bring a spin to the discussion and to their definitions, but they should be part of a certain moral code on which we can agree and on which us as living beings can live with the least unnecessary conflict.
    But I also agree that one should not be too grounded, too mechanized, especially when it comes to politics and art, one should feel free to search new points of view and follow instinct without rationalizing things too much. Experiment, be challenged, choose and learn...

  25. Uno

    @ Lebogang: Yep, that's the point, always fight for change and when it finally comes we know must start looking at it critically again...

  26. Khumbelo

    awesome shot bro!

  27. Buchu

    @ Sthe, I agree with Uno on the "staying grounded" topic;
    You need to be grounded and know yourself, your values, what you hold dear
    and at the same time be open to different points of view/ directions.
    Even the soaring eagle must come back to the nest at some point. :)

  28. Palapala

    A simple and nice shot with so may words.

  29. Thato Sehlabela

    To each his own...
    Dope shot by the way!

  30. Sthe Ngcobo

    Palapala....I love your simplicity....!
    :-)
    @Buchu...i hear you....!

  31. Greer

    @ Buchu & Sthe (and Fluxd) I think it is important to understand that your ego - which responds to the "me-me-me" world we live in, is not really YOU. Who you are is bigger than that, more real than that, more connected to others than that. The problem is that some of us are blinded by EGO and can't access who we really are. Branding is nothing but an attention grabbing trick. And we fall for it everyday. Everything is branded around us. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't let your "branding" take away from who you are and what you're really about.

    D

    I personally do not understand all this hoopla over branding.
    Some people like it some people don't.. So what?
    The same way that we all won't like the same style of photography.
    All things are subjective, That's the way life goes.
    One argument isn't stronger than the other

  32. sfiso

    dope shot!

    That is all.

  33. Uno

    Thanks everyone.
    By the way, this was not edited in photoshop, it's straight out the camera, only the watermark was added : )

  34. Greer

    lets do this again, next week.

  35. lebogang nkoane

    LOL!

    LMAO!

    :-)

  36. Fluxd

    lol

  37. Sthe Ngcobo

    :-)
    I'll pass,thank you.
    Lol

  38. George Gladwin Matsheke

    What Khumbelo said ...

  39. sweetoof

    caption and title aside, this is a good picture. i likt that the shadows are not entirely without detail

  40. onelove

    Great picture! Something ominous yet so hopeful about it.
    In terms of a partial antidote (Buchu) I appreciate Greer's meditation... Baudrillard vision is too uncertain for me... cause then even the development of a moral code that Uno suggests society should come to some agreement on is still only partial and relative...how could we live with such uncertainty? Or maybe I've missed the point?

  41. ªßè®

    Gents y le lwana mara! Logo this, branding this! Anger is a giveaway that u have been defeated.......take it easy, we love all pictures, shows diversity. ONE LOVE!

  42. Uno

    I'm enjoying the different opinions and readings that this post has brought., these are all very relevant debates...

    Firstly @ Desiree: if you read my commentary well, I wasn't saying that I'm against branding, what I'm saying is that when you want to put your brand out there at any cost, be it with a bad or good connotation, like a lot of public figures do, especially poilticians (Malema comes to mind), it becomes more about the image than the content. The risk of this is that you got to keep on raising the bar in order to be noticed, to become louder and more visible.
    After a while any message at the on set becomes diluted in a warm pool of aesthetic garbage, eye candy that we chew and spit as soon as something else more appealing comes along.
    Branding can be succesfully used, simplicity can be used as a brand, quality can be used as a brand, good and original design can become a brand simply because of its consistent ground breaking, thought provoking solutions. There are plenty of good examples out there. And what defines the success of a brand? Isn't it the public it is directed at? Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't most examples of successful branding actually very powerful but simple concepts that grab the public with no need for fireworks?

    @Onelove: Is there anything that is certain in the world we live? Isn't our desire to control everything what is threatening to our very existence in this planet? Religion, politics, science are good examples of our attempts at bringing certainty to our lives. And everytime we try to impose it there is almost immediatelly a movement of resistance or rebelion against it. This progressive, linear way of thinking, with a need for a locked frame of thought is imaginary, doesn't exist but in our minds. Life in unpredictable, it requires a high capacity of adaptation and that is how we've managed to survive until now, not by holding on to eternal truths...
    It's back to the myth of Sysiphus, rolling that rock up the hill only to get to the top and watch it roll down again, a brief moment of lucidity and contemplation...

  43. Uno

    Maybe I sound still too vague, to better define my views: I don't believe in universal movements or ideologies, I believe on trying to do things well everyday, informed both by my own judgement and by others, finding a balance that doesn't infringe on anyone's freedom, including my own. I steer away from any vision that believes that we can change the world, It's hard enough to change myself, even when I know it necessary. I choose to care about what's closer to me or that I can relate to, everything else can be informative but at the end of the day irrelevant to my choices. I don't care about the "big questions", what no one can answer for sure, why should I? Once again it's irrelevant. It's actually about the everyday small questions...

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