The Killing Camera - Killing Our Truth

Life seen through a lens, printed on paper, projected on a screen, or pixilated. Its not real life, its two-dimensional, frozen. We all live in three recognisable spacial dimensions and a fourth in time. Its hard to remember it when billboards and magazines and media everywhere compete to capture our dreams, hopes and fears and pin them down - cutting deep through our conscious minds to the unconscious, shuffling our hierarchies of importance to fit in with theirs - exploiting us. What does this pop-up book existence do to us? How does it effect our image of our selves, our partners, our jobs, family gatherings, our holidays? What does it do to our expectations?

Imagery is powerful. Detailed information received in a split-second. Words, music, all take time to unfold, but the image doesn't give us a chance to 'switch off and listen no more' if we don't like it. We can be stuck with images no matter how much we try to scrub them from our minds, they are as stubborn as unpleasant memories. We have little defense against the camera - and the people that only want to make money know this very well - taking full advantage.

The current excess of two-dimensional images in metropolitan life is pretty unavoidable, and looks set to become more intrusive. The only obvious way to keep your thoughts your own is to opt out completely - get a farm or join a monastery. Yet there is no logical reason why we shouldn't be able to enjoy an abundant, prosperous and modern life, without it costing us the sovereignty of our unconscious minds - where we must appoint the avaricious minority as guardians of our deepest desires. Human technology, art and enterprise are things that would sell themselves - do we really have to be manipulated to enjoy their products? The products - whether a movie or a cutlery set, generally make our lives better, but the way they are sold to us could be doing us more damage than we realise.

For example - the first rule for people that only want to make money, but avoid prison, is 'sex sells', so a huge percentage of the imagery around us is eroticised, restricted only by the local censorship laws. Yet there is a big difference between what sex means to us personally- in terms of sexual attraction and intimacy, also globally - for the survival of the species, and the way it is sold back to us. As its not that easy to capture and freeze this most primal and vital part of our existence into into two-dimensions- enough to stimulate our acquisitive natures, it is dressed up with a bit of glamour and exaggeration to keep us interested - often exaggerated into fetish, power struggles and wild exhibitionism - unrealistic to the point of ridiculousness.

Whether the presentation of this sex-caricature is overt or suggestive, its all to make money, not to be beneficial to us. And whether we like it or not, if we have contact with todays media it will be hurled at us constantly to tap our personal core of sexuality so we Buy! Buy! Buy! - even for products that have not even a tenuous connection with sex. What could this be doing to our love-lives - let alone perception of ourselves as sexual beings?

Sadly, when this hyped-up caricature is used as instructive, most often by the intimately inexperienced, the hapless person in bed with them has to cope with a self-absorbed whirlwind of a performer, with very little responsiveness or sensitivity. The sexually pre-programmed individual also misses out on the intimacy, attraction and vitality of the act with another human being as they are caught up in an alienating fantasy. Though these are extreme, but probably all too familiar cases, there is still most likely to be a subtle effect on people who are more sexually genuine too.

Lots of people experience feelings of inadequacy or pressure to conform even if they have a healthy sex-life. A friend of mine complained that as she comes home on the tube train after a long day at work, images of glamorous, alluring and physically perfect women leaping out of newspapers and billboards have a nasty impact on her body image. This can then affect her sexual confidence. Why are those images there? To make money. Can they be avoided? No. So how can a person hang onto what is true and genuine to them when there is so much trying to tug them off? Images cut to the bone.