MMS TV
In 2003 I was granted access to NRK’s (National Norwegian Broadcasting TVchannel) MMS-archives from a program called Svisj. The archive material also included censored pictures. For the price of 15 kroner (2€), and with no guarantee the photo would ever be shown, one could submit a snapshot to this program from your mobilphone. The book contains 900 pictures and represents my sorting and arrangement of the total mass of the material, censored as well as broadcast. None of the photos were taken by me, and I have no information concerning the person who submitted the photo or the purpose for doing so apart from the implicit desire to see it on national TV.
Firstly I was curious about the use of this new type of camera. In the analysis and the process of sorting the material I looked at the action the pictures represented and the way in which they were photographed. Questions relating to the original function versus its representation in my work are connected with the reasons for the pictures actually being taken in the first place, and the desire to see them on the TV.
The colossal amount of information the selection in the book represents is visualised by avoiding focus on individual pictures. The pictures are categorised into smaller individually defined groups through emphasis on collective approach and tendencies in the material. At the expense of the individual photo, repetitions in the archives and the mass of the total material, the selection in the book was carried out focusing on the general aesthetic and thematic choices made by the contributors. This analytical grouping stresses a catalogue-like rhetoric based on my own recognition of the tendencies in the individually defined groups.
At the core of this work is the plurality in the representation of the photos. Photography is a visual language we make use of more and more often, both in private and public settings. The collective understanding of pictures is culturally related – our choices are somehow connected to the pictures and choices of others. In visual communication, our actions are based both on our own and our collective consciousness. All types of cameras influence how and what we shoot. This new publicly available mobile camera with telephone and picture fax does not stand out in that respect. It is the smallest, most accessible and dependable camera we have ever had. It is also the most effective picture broadcaster. Sharing photos with friends is simple and effective, like an old Xerox, a visual notebook or a global mail service with instant delivery.
New challenges will follow in the wake of each new technological generation of mobile telephone cameras. Just as all new technology will create displacements in the traditional ethical and cultural borders, such extensiveness offers new potential and cultural changes. Popular technology thus shifts established boundaries – new pictures and new problems arise. This project is based on the fact that such potential exist in most pockets. Pictures from life can be broadcast on TV, and in turn be collected in a book. The MMS photos in this book reveal what the Norwegian people has to say and how this is communicated through new technology when there is an option of having it broadcast on national TV.
