Have social media become the new scapegoats? They are most often denounced as being responsible for the rise of intolerance in our societies and even as being at the source of the democratic crisis we are experiencing. The question is certainly more complex. Wouldn’t the blame thrown on social media prevent us from understanding the deeper reasons for the current socio-political slump?
These media are also criticized for the emptiness of certain subjects that they address and exhaust, just as photography was in the 19th century.e century and cinema at the turn of the 20th centurye century: portraits of historically insignificant individuals, images and films showing cats, dogs and babies, comic sketches… But things do not seem as simple as they seem. The extent of the use of photos and videos in social media clearly deserves greater attention than outright condemnation.
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is continuing its reflection on the links between photography and architecture in an exhibition devoted to the use of still and moving images showing construction sites on several digital platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, etc. By visiting this exhibition, visitors will indeed have the feeling that the phenomenon has taken on considerable importance, a lesser-known aspect of digital platforms. In the CCA’s octagonal room, the multitude of video screens allow us to see an impressive quantity of these images that show much more than workers or people doing renovations. The very way they are presented — vertically, as on phone screens — certainly shows the impact of these Internet publications on our way of apprehending the image, which once had the format of a panorama and often claimed to offer a broader point of view on the world…
Is this really a revolution in image and even in society? It is far from certain. These images of construction sites, these postscould also simply embody a desire for recognition in an era obsessed with stardom. Some Instagrammers and TikTokers are indeed famous and have “artist names”, such as dutchbricklayers, bricktricks, Smartest Workers, everyverythings… The publications perhaps simply show us how workers have become hostages of their company, using their free time to shoot funny videos promoting it. These workers often seem to have simply internalized the dominant values of capitalism by becoming a little more its instrument. In the video testimony of one of the employee-influencers, we can hear him defend the idea that his company does not really participate in deforestation with its large-scale construction projects… Without convincing us too much. We can therefore see it as an important tool trying to manipulate the public and information.
But these images and social networks can also symbolize a network of mutual aid and knowledge sharing. Are they a new social engine used to build a cross-border network of contacts and friends, as some claim? Is this a new utopia? The relevance of certain images seems to confirm the value of amateur photography, but also a democratization of knowledge… But to what extent?
Some image theorists, such as Nathan Jurgenson, argue that the status of the photo has changed with social media. The photo would no longer necessarily be a document to preserve memory, but rather an instrument of communication whose main purpose would be the circulation of information. He calls this phenomenon the social photo, an idea he explains in a 2019 book that is still essential.
This exhibition will provide essential food for thought, but without necessarily providing clear answers to the many questions it raises. Thanks to the CCA’s collections and archives, it nevertheless has the great merit of placing this type of photography in the historical context of construction site photos taken in the 19th century.e and XXe centuries, photos that have often glorified modern engineering and architecture. This will help to broaden the issue and perhaps avoid some of the narrow clichés that are repeated on this subject.