In 1930’s England, approximately 500 untrained volunteers anonymously recorded conversations and behaviors at various public places, including work, the street, public meetings, sporting, and religious events. Today, untrained observers continue to record the world, but now the results are posted to social media, such as Twitter and Instagram. With the rise of distrust in the major media outlets, we have turned to the non-professional, the Twittersphere, iPhone videos, and Instagram feeds for authentic and truthful windows to reality. Krista Wortendyke’s meditation on the 1930’s project, Mass-Observation, questions the aestheticization and mediation of violence in our culture by using images of race riots, cropping them into Instagram-worthy squares, and combining them in a single space or feed. The resulting installation, #Mass_Observation, thus mimics society’s comfort with Instagram while simultaneously calling into question the casualness with which we document and beautify events like these riots and how that in turn influences the way in which we define our own relationships to race.
Given the current state of racial politics and clashes in the United States, questioning and attempting to understand the role of mass media and the impact of social media in these conversations is essential, and #Mass_Observation seeks to push audiences to consider their own consumption of mass and social media and the way each medium impacts us.
“Hundreds of schools will be closed this morning in Los Angeles. The situation far from normal here this morning. #LARiots1992 #RodneyKingRiots #1992LACivilDisturbance #LAUprising #RodneyKing #mass_observation
“I was resolved that we would finish that dream.” #Chicago1968 #MartinLutherKingJr #mass_observation
“What the hell is going on out there? Are you serious? This is America.” #Ferguson2014 #mass_observation
“I wish things could be better for the negro people. Everybody isn’t thieves and murderers and snipers.” #Detriot1967 #12thStreetRiot #1967DetriotRebellion #LongHotSummer #BlindPig #mass_observation
“Gangs have played a surprisingly central role in helping to maintain peace and order.” #Baltimore2015 #FreddieGray #mass_observation
“This is the toughest situation to deal with that I’ve seen short of Vietnam.” #Detroit1967 #12thStreetRiot #1967DetroitRebellion #LongHotSummer #BlindPig #mass_observation
“Sarah? Sarah can I say something to you? Can you move back because last night they were saying that there was possible live ammo in the car but keep talking to us. I just want to make sure you’re safe.” #Ferguson2014 #TheFergusonUnrest #BattleOfFerguson #MichaelBrown #mass_observation
“Hit the siren Doug. Yes, hit the siren.” #LARiots #RodneyKingRiots #1992LACivilDisturbance #LAUprising #RodneyKing #mass_observation
“The mayor, the governor, even the President of the United States expressed outrage after seeing the video and for a lot of people, the video spoke for itself. Why didn’t it speak for you?” #LARiots #RodneyKingRiots #1992LACivilDisturbance #LAUprising #RodneyKing #mass_observation
“We always knew that this was happening in some far off land that we are colonizing. How do you feel when it’s in your own backyard?” #BattleOfFerguson #Ferguson #ftp #HandsUp #DontShoot #mass_observation
“LA is a free case of beer, a box of toilet paper on Rodney King. The fit doesn’t matter. LA is a new pair of shoes.” #LARiots1992 #RodneyKingRiots #1992CivilDisturbance #LAUprising #RodneyKing #mass_observation