Hyperimages
Zurich, VC Editions
2023
Hyperimages explores the concept of “hyper” in relation to current visual phenomena, examining the excessive, heightened, and multidimensional nature of how images are often produced, consumed, or displayed today. Based on a series of discussions, readings, museum visits, and visual analyses around the concept of hyperimages, we aimed essentially to explore some of the following questions: can we see something anew about the relationship between us and the visual, between the visual and reality, and between reality and us?
Throughout the discussions, a special focus crystallized on the phenomenon of image assemblages within cyberspace. We observed that some image groupings exist in the same digital plane (such as carefully curated Instagram feeds). In contrast, others have their elements distributed across planes and dimensions, like the visual identities and personas that emerge from intricate hyperlinking across platforms and channels. Some are more static and linear, while others are in a state of permanent, ungraspable change, just like in an oversaturated heraclitian reality of ever-transforming visual content.
This publication is the result of the seminar “Hyperimages” led by Björn Franke and Annamaria Vasvari in the MA graduate course in Visual Communication at Zurich University of the Arts. The publication contributions were further developed in the two-part workshop “Hyper Hyper: Deconstructing Kim Kardashian” led by Isabel Seiffert and Christoph Miler (Offshore Studio) in 2020.
The publication can be ordered here.
Credits
Editors: Björn Franke, Annamaria Vasvari, Sarah Owens
Contributors: Franco Pereyra, Katharina Shafiei-Nasab, Simon Schwyzer, Julie Friess,
Hélène Yüksel, Pallavi Keshri, Annamaria Vasvari, Christoph Miler, Cherry-Ann Davis
Workshop: Offshore Studio (Isabel Seiffert, Christoph Miler)
Design: ROLE Studio (Romy Strasser, Lea Fischlin)
Photos: Matthias Buenzli