Within the framework of the NEXT 2021 educational programme ‘Visions of the Age’, on Facebook platform there will be an opportunity to meet the artists of the exhibition ‘Digital Dark Age’ Kristīne Krauze-Slucka, Aap Tepper and the curator of the exhibition Aneta Skuja. The exhibition is on view at the Latvian Museum of Photography from September 3 until October 3. The online meeting with the artists will be conducted in English.

The exhibiting artists - Kristīne Krauze-Slucka and Aap Tepper - will present their creative practice, which actualises the interaction between the digital and analogue resources, while the curator of the exhibition, Anete Skuja, will introduce the concept of the exhibition, and together with the artists contemplate the modifications in the materiality of photographic image in the context of the dominance of digital technologies and the transformation of photographic medium. The exhibition ‘Digital Dark Age’ looks at how the development and dominance of digital technology lays the foundations for a new culture of intangible memories, under the influence of which the photographic image or even the touch has seemingly lost its material substance.

The transformation of digital technology at the end of the 20 th century has led to a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of digital photography compared to the traditional photographic object – print. Anxiety about the alteration of photographic medium seems to be related to the loss of material presence, laying the foundations for a new intangible culture of memories, under the influence of which the photographic image has become a body of information for a potential (not fully materialised) image that can be viewed on the screen. As our understanding of digital images evolves, they are perceived as more than just an opportunity to reproduce the past, but rather as a whole new branch of photographic medium, posing questions about the impact of phenomena created by digital technology, i.e. digital manipulation, automatic alterations of artificial intelligence, lack and loss of information, on the materiality of the photographic image, its consumption and significance as an object for the documentation tool. While the development of digital media has given rise to reflections on how we can experience and understand materiality, technological advances recognize our stubborn desire to consume photos using both sight and touch – evoking haptic perception via touch sensitive technology.

Participants: Kristīne Krauze-Slucka (LV), Aap Tepper (EE), Anete Skuja (LV)
Curator: Anete Skuja (LV)
Organizer: Organizer: Riga Photography Biennial in cooperation with State Culture Capital Foundation mērķprogramma “KultūrELPA”
Image: Image: Aap Tepper. ‘Shadow of Materiality’, 2019/2020