News Theater
Digital Photography | 数码摄影
2019-2020 | 已完结
2019-2020 | 已完结
In the summer of 2020, I was working as a camera assistant for a Chinese government-owned TV channel. My production team was responsible for local
news production, interviews, and such. Like many government-owned news outlets, the news programs I participated in involved staging, intervention, and scripted
performances. The boundary between news and theater
is certainly very blurry, and I was drawn into the visual
languages used in these productions. Every scene is created to be documented, and every line spoken is meant
to be recorded. My camera, in this case, is my vehicle to
swim in this mixture of truth and illusions.
After my internship with the official TV channel, I re-visited many scenes that I worked in, and reconstructed images in those scenes. In this process, I highlighted the visual symbols I found while disregarding other details. Behind this photographic experiment, I hoped to make the audience perceive the theme of the news by decoding the symbol text in the news without the existence of hosts. This involves the audience’s interpretation of the symbols placed on the stage. Through this experiment, I intend to invite the audience’s reflection on the symbolic roles of newsroom devices and settings – without the hosts, can the newsroom scene convey its original political signals? Does this habitual interpretation of symbols mean that the viewer has been subtly domesticated by the huge symbol system?
After my internship with the official TV channel, I re-visited many scenes that I worked in, and reconstructed images in those scenes. In this process, I highlighted the visual symbols I found while disregarding other details. Behind this photographic experiment, I hoped to make the audience perceive the theme of the news by decoding the symbol text in the news without the existence of hosts. This involves the audience’s interpretation of the symbols placed on the stage. Through this experiment, I intend to invite the audience’s reflection on the symbolic roles of newsroom devices and settings – without the hosts, can the newsroom scene convey its original political signals? Does this habitual interpretation of symbols mean that the viewer has been subtly domesticated by the huge symbol system?
2020 年夏天，我在一家政府电视台担任摄像助理。我所在的制作团队负责本地新闻制作、采访等工作。和许多政府拥有的新闻机构一样，我参与的新闻节目涉及舞台、干预和剧本表演。新闻和戏剧之间的界限当然非常模糊，我被这些制作中使用的视觉语言所吸引。新闻里每一个场景都是为了被记录下来而设计，采访里每一句台词都是为了被记录下来而构思。在这种情况下，我的相机就是我在这种真实与虚幻交织的环境中畅游的载体。
在官方电视频道实习结束后，我重访了许多工作过的场景，并重建了这些场景中的影像。在这个过程中，我突出了我发现的视觉符号，而忽略了其他细节。在这个摄影实验的背后，我希望在没有主持人的情况下，通过解码新闻中的符号文本，让受众感知新闻的主题——这就需要观众对舞台上的符号进行解读。通过这个实验，我想邀请观众反思新闻现场的设备和场景的符号作用：没有主持人，新闻现场是否能传达其原有的政治信号？这种对符号的习惯性解读是否意味着我们已经被庞大的符号系统巧妙地驯化了？
在官方电视频道实习结束后，我重访了许多工作过的场景，并重建了这些场景中的影像。在这个过程中，我突出了我发现的视觉符号，而忽略了其他细节。在这个摄影实验的背后，我希望在没有主持人的情况下，通过解码新闻中的符号文本，让受众感知新闻的主题——这就需要观众对舞台上的符号进行解读。通过这个实验，我想邀请观众反思新闻现场的设备和场景的符号作用：没有主持人，新闻现场是否能传达其原有的政治信号？这种对符号的习惯性解读是否意味着我们已经被庞大的符号系统巧妙地驯化了？
2019.11