The Royal Road

My mash up this week is influenced by the Royal Wedding and the current global political situation! 

Peter W Singer the writer of "Wired For War", states that an armed Drone could shoot an apple at 800 meters but that it could not tell if it was an apple or a tomato!

With Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UAV's) now in Libya, Syria......I was wondering if it might be possible for those flying eyes, present around the Mall tomorrow for the Royal Wedding, to tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.  At least the Syrian Ambassador has now had his invitation withdrawn! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13223428 

In a world of appearance  it seems quite an important limitation of a machine, not to be able to understand the actuality or nature of an object presented to it on a screen.  For behind the world of appearance or surface behaviours are concepts and it is these concepts, ideas and greater understandings of what appears on the surface, that provides us with knowledge of what is actually present.   It is only then, that we can discern if that object is morally right or wrong, good or bad etc etc. If a drone can't understand whether you put the object into a salad or into pudding, then it cant embrace its contradictions, or in Marx's terminology, the dialectics inherent in the object.

We have an instinct for dialectics and we only loose it by the search for facts - ingrained by parents and teachers at a very young age.  We are trained for certainty and rational, definites or answers that we are led to believe embody some sort of truth.  Will the car driving down the Mall have Kate and William in it or the Syrian Ambassador and his wife?  We know the answer and the difference because we understand whats happening, the car has context and their is a concept behind the image which we can work out. Kate is marrying William, he is a Royal, Royal's drive down the Mall when they get married and he is a boy and she is a girl, they are young etc etc.  The UAV as an object, flying above us tomorrow wont have a clue!  It could be anyone in the car/coach/whatever, and be doing anything for all the Drone cares. 

In the world of image, it seems to me that it is this contradiction and the relationship between truth, definitive answers and fantasy that makes what we do as photographers interesting.  Photography illuminates the world around us,  turning the surface of appearance into a conceptual framework.  In its essence dialectics is critical and revolutionary, not just one view but many views, bouncing off each other like a virtual game of Vortex.  What happens when you break through the wall is unpredictable, free floating, exciting and innovative.  Keeping things moving and free floating is what keeps photography relevant, and inspires people like Jim Goldberg - the winner of the DB prize - to carry on working.

Karl Marx understood everything as process, everything moving, capitalism is perpetually "on the road".   In "Capital" V 1, Marx starts with concepts and only when you finally reach the end do you have any real idea of whats happening, what the hell is actually being said about the world.  Photography is this for me, an idea that becomes a collection of surface information that produces and culminates in a eureka moment giving greater understanding of the original concept. This is only possible when you are forced to relinquish your preconceived thoughts and limitations of a subject and allow your consciousness to be hijacked and sent spinning off in many directions.

And then of course there is Sigmund Freuds understanding of dreams noted in The Interpretation of Dreams 1900, being the "Royal Road to the Unconscious" What is hidden through dreams comes to the surface in everyday life indicating the 'real' trauma or event that inhibits daily existence.

So, the real trauma is clearly not the Royal Wedding but is the appalling nightmare and humanitarian disaster that we are watching unfold in the Middle East.  Tomorrow means nothing by comparison but will give respite to those across the globe, especially those at Fort Rucker, Alabama, who have told me to pass on that we should celebrate tomorrow and look to Kate and William to bring hope for a less chaotic and desperate future.