Why do people take so many photographs nowadays? What makes us share our photos to the whole world? These questions, among others, will be answered in the #Snapshot exhibition at the Finnish Museum of Photography. It is made possible by an exceptional collaboration between the museum, a software company, and academic scholars.
The visitors of the #Snapshot exhibition can truly interact with and participate in today’s snapshot culture: in taking photographs, sharing them and questioning the ways in which our concept of privacy is changing. Consisting primarily of photographs taken by ordinary people, the exhibition also features new works commenting on the phenomenon by international artists.
The Finnish Museum of Photography wanted to take a step towards bringing the whole culture of contemporary photography into the light, and two social media and mobile photography scholars from University of Tampere School of Communication, Media and Theatre and Aalto University joined the initiative. Dr. Risto Sarvas inspired a group of software engineers and designers from Futurice, a Finnish software company and a partner to EIT ICT Labs, to join the planning team.
“The #Snapshot exhibition provides a fascinating view on interplay of technical advances in and our evolving social practices around photography. The exhibition also acts as an excellent technology experimentation space to disseminate innovative solutions arising from EIT ICT Labs partners for interactive smart spaces of the future”, commented Marko Turpeinen, Node Director for EIT ICT Labs Helsinki.
#Snapshot brings “the digital” into societal discussions
In the 2010s, photography is all about sharing the images. Majority of people know hardly anything about what data they tell about themselves when they share their photographs on social media. The installations made by Futurice let the visitors experience what social media is and how it is connected to our privacy. Dr. Sarvas believes that every snapshot photographer should understand what happens to the pictures and the data collected in the backstage of digital services.
“We at Futurice are professionals in building software and we feel that it is our responsibility to shed light on how technology works and in that way contribute to the discourses on what kind of an information society should be built in Europe and globally. In the Finnish Museum of Photography we have found a perfect partner in making a societal impact”, Dr. Sarvas concludes.
#Snapshot exhibition is open from 21 August, 2014 to 18 January, 2015 at The Finnish Museum of Photography, The Cable Factory, Helsinki. For more information, please, visit the Museum website.
