Book Review: Our Interference Times: A Visual Record
Michael Stipe’s new book Our Interference Times: A Visual Record is comprised of photos that capture the analog world from the artist’s past and present by utilizing digital technology. Among the 3,000 options Stipe chose as contenders, 191 photos were ultimately selected to create the photography book co-authored by Stipe’s good friend and known writer, Douglas Coupland. Coupland not only assisted in choosing the images, but also helped the photographer organize them in such a way that would prevent any one image from being considered singularly. Instead, the duo arranged images in pairs meant to be examined together.
© Michael Stipe
The first photo is on the hardcover of the large book which displays a portrait of Stipe – a photo presumably taken of another photo from a computer screen. In fact, this image encapsulates everything Stipe explores within the 191-pages of Our Interference Times. From images that focus on nature’s many little components – whether that be mushrooms on a tree or the core of an apricot – to images that focus on the moiré effect produced when photographing any digital screen, Stipe reveals the many patterns that exist in these overlapping worlds.
© Michael Stipe
© Michael Stipe
In the process of making the book, Stipe made sure that each photo bleeds off the edges of its page. He then composed entire spreads of images meant to face and, thus, juxtapose one another. Oftentimes, the images being asked to be considered in unison don’t have any clear content-based connection. It’s the grid of a big city as seen from an airplane window beside the rusting gate, turned on its side. It’s the old passport photo of a young Stipe beside the glass windows of an otherwise gray structure. It’s the aging, nose-less Greek bust beside the equally aged concrete stairwell.
© Michael Stipe
© Michael Stipe
© Michael Stipe
© Michael Stipe
By bringing together these distinct photos, which were shot in varying formats, Stipe conveys the chaos that exists in analog and digital worlds, both on their own but, especially, when they’re joined together. Though chaotic, the quality of each photo is not at all diminished as the images are carefully composed. Their composition and arrangement further lead to their success in establishing patterns and relationships that viewers can quickly digest, no matter their content.
It seems clear that Our Interference Times: A Visual Record isn’t a work that sets out to critique or praise digital technologies. Instead, it merely explores the strong visual languages that fill lives, past and present, and reflects on how these different technological modes could be considered together though they’re often thought of apart.
