THOMPSONSPF10RESEARCH

 

I am interested in his method of creating a visual language with the viewer through the removal of branding. I can relate to his work through the manipulation of the advertisements which have become our popular culture across our landscape and in our minds. Siber’s biggest accomplishment through his work I believe is way of visually showing his audience the enormity of advertising and how prominent it has become in our societies spanning across the globe. Siber is very interested in forms of communication, written and visual. I believe he is more interested in exploring the changing landscape where I have been more interested in creating awareness with my viewers. I feel that if I maybe try to create some future ads that leave room to guess or work that is vaguer may perhaps be a better way to create interest in my viewers. Since we both work by restructuring ads and branding I find Siber relevant and hope to explore new methods to address some of the same topics I currently work with. Whatever the new method may be I think it could inspire a new body of work at some future point for me.

Matt Siber grew up near Boston, MA. He got his Bachelor’s degree in History and Geography from the University of Vermont, and received an MFA in Photography from Columbia College. Siber is primarily a gallery artist and also teaches digital photography.

Matt Siber often removes advertising or parts of advertisements to make the familiar, unfamiliar to the viewer. His method shows the cluttered world of advertising and the visual distraction it takes on us. His work highlights the world beneath advertising. Another method Siber works is by highlighting the advertisements surrounding us by removing their formal structure such as the poles. This reduction manages to glorify the common logos and signs.

“Why, of all things, focus on what I’ll lump together as advertising, visual pollution, and text culture?” - Alec Quig

“I can’t think of anything more relevant to our culture at this moment.  Yes, we are dealing with wars overseas, a world economy on the brink of collapse and a historical presidential election to twist a glimmer of hope into an otherwise bleak global outlook.  The thing about visual culture is that it has become ingrained in everything that affects us.  We have become a population that gleans more information from visual literacy than ever before.  Our sophistication in reading visual information has gotten so advanced that we don’t need text to get the message.” - Matt Siber

 ““Sophistication” is an interesting way of putting it. Reading visual information doesn’t require literacy in the standard sense, but a matrix of cultural awareness that we grow up accumulating.” - Alec Quig

“I remember a huge billboard ad a couple of years ago of a close-up photo of blue athletic shorts with three orange stripes running down the side.  Simply and clearly Adidas, but no text or stylized, leafy logo to tell us that.  When we take into account the ways in which we get our information – internet, infotainment-based news outlets, tabloid newspapers, etc.—it’s hard to ignore the relevance of visual culture. We are far more likely to get our news through short video clips and photographs than through reading in-depth literary reporting on major events.” - Matt Siber

“Which are open-ended and we can interpret any way we want.” - Alec Quig

“I don’t think this is true.  I believe that much of the visuals through which we receive our information are heavily biased and leading.” - Matt Siber

“Well, you’re right. I was thinking of flicking idly through news image slide shows instead of actually reading the stories, and how personal experience, not the journalist’s words, can be left to shape one’s interpretation.” - Alec Quig

“It’s such a malleable form of communication.  I would love to see a press corps that presents information in an open-ended way so that we can draw our own conclusions, but apparently we don’t want that.  We want the conclusions drawn for us. Visuals are usually presented in conjunction with written or spoken word which is used to further sensationalize and spin the story. How does this affect the way we understand our world?  What is the responsibility of media outlets who submit to the ever-shortening attention span of the American public by opting for dramatic visuals over probing analysis?  Most of my work to this point deals with the consumer side of visual culture, but it is all intertwined these days.” - Matt Siber

“It is, and increasingly—I’d say the consumer side is the noisiest. But is advertising the villain?” - Alec Quig

“This is an interesting issue and I have a very definitive stance on it at the moment.  In a word, my answer is no.  As with gun violence, it is very easy to lay blame on the first thing we think of.  I am not a proponent of guns, but I fully understand that guns are objects and it is therefore inappropriate to speak of them in terms of good and evil.  The people who use them are a different story.  I feel that the same is true for advertising.  I don’t believe that there is anything inherently wrong with the idea of advertising.  In fact, I think it is 100% necessary because it allows businesses to make themselves known and it educates consumers about where to go to get the goods and services they need. We lose sight of this, but we really do need it.” - Matt Siber

Quig Alex, “Matt Siber” Bomblog Apr 2009 http://bombsite.powweb.com/?p=1758

“Even though I'm feeling a little less grounded than usual lately, I am enjoying this period immensely. I am realizing that I can explore different media without leaving photography behind. I think that is what is so exciting about making art in the 21st century. We have been released from the confines of our pigeon-holed labels as artists and are able to explore what we want. I'm sure there are many reasons for this but I see two major ones worth mentioning.

First, technology has been a great equalizer for many artists. Learning a few creative programs opens up whole worlds of possibilities that were only accessible to highly trained professionals in the field a few decades ago. Many of these programs work with similar formats making learning new programs that much easier. A great many of my friends and colleagues in the photo field also work in video with programs like Final Cut and even iMovie. Graphic design and 3D design has been made more accessible through programs like Illustrator, Sketchup, Rhino and Maya.

Secondly, the post-modern notion that the art can be conceived by the artist and produced by someone else has been instrumental in broadening the creative scope of contemporary artists. We all recognize our limitations and that we can't be experts at everything. I'm sure some would argue that a photographer has no business making videos or sculptures, and there may be some truth to that. But we are in an age where art can look like so many different things. Some may require machines to produce them(Jeff Koons industrially produced sculptures, for instance) while others are so complex or grandiose that they require teams of experts (Mathew Barney's Cremaster series comes to mind). Not only has this become common practice these days but it has become accepted.

More and more, I have been encouraging my students to learn more programs, to think beyond photography, to watch films, keep up on painting trends and look for work done in new media. This is a controversial issue, as many are reluctant to give up their label as an integral part of their identity as painter, photographer, sculptor, etc.. I have been called pretentious to my face by former photography professors for referring to myself as an artist rather than a photographer. I think this is changing and I hope we are progressing to a point where these categories become less and less relevant.

In theory, this should increase creative freedom for all artists, photographic and otherwise. Of course, it also means that there will be a good number of people working in media they don't understand. It is unavoidable that a lot of crap will be produced but it is the job of the art system to determine what is crap and what is not. The cream should still rise to the top (I'm well aware that it doesn't always work this way).

I am thrilled to be working in the artistic field right now. I think it is a very exciting and liberating time to be an artist. I'm very thankful that I have the creative outlets that I do - and I still can't draw.” – Matt Siber

Siber, Matt “The Amalgamation of Creative Media” Daylight Magazine, Dec 2008 http://www.daylightmagazine.org/blog/2008/12/15/273