The Art of Slow Information

The information age allows access to all information, all the time. Media is accessible everywhere, anytime. The media we absorb, mostly, is our choice.  Through these images we create an understanding of our world.

We are wonderfully able to absorb information quickly that now more than ever the art and design of the image is of vital significance. In the past the designed image, be it painting or film, carried meaning, metaphor and as I have discussed before held a place for imagination. Look for example at early German expressionist films such as 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' or the films celebrated in Scorsese's recent homage to this era 'Hugo'.  These images were immediately stunning and entertaining but the absorption of the ideas and meaning behind them were slow.  It might take someone days, weeks even years to comprehend their significance and depth.  The images created by our most revered painters have been celebrated for centuries. Celebrated not because the tell us something clearly. On the contrary these images guide us to form understanding and comprehension of our own.

Today our media is literal, factual or information in the form of symbol. This information is easy to digest and understand quickly.  It is necessary to communicate this way to access the technology that has become integral to our society. This form of design is the realm of the communicator not the artist. The role of the artist is to work in 'the art of slow information'. Slow information comes in the form of metaphor and poetry. This form of art is less prevalent in our film and media today and it shouldn't be. Audiences are hungry for films that we return to time after time in our imaginations rather than forget as soon as we leave the multiplex.