I’ve always considered the phrase “Pictures can’t lie” to be charmingly naïve. This technology exists now, Photoshop has existed for decades, darkroom techniques have been around for as long as there’s been photography, and there’s always been recontextualization. “You provide the pictures. I’ll provide the war, ” is one of the most famous quotes in journalism, after all.
I have a bit of a “White Hat” view of this. Now an audience knows that they can be fooled. They have to figure out for themselves if they trust the source.
Recent studies suggest even knowing for certain that the imagery is fictional doesn’t help us keep from remembering it as factual.
I have a bit of an arms race view of it: now that we know we can be hacked in this way, we must research a secure patch!
Yeah. It’s too bad that neuropsychological hacks are so… heuristic. “Patches” tend to be things like religions and philosophical technique, which are rather hard to implement, and impossible to implement without unforeseen consequences.
I’m sure this is really neat, but Vimeo sucks and won’t play for me. Ever. Because it sucks.