Dear Internet, it’s me, the Daguerreotype

Posted in Artist's Journal, Blogs n' Articles, Daguerreotypes by Jonathan on the March 19th, 2007

Brain child of artists Mark Cooley and Edgar Endress, Dear Internet is a fascinating installation project.

Dear Internet is an experiment in participatory narrative that attempts to investigate how networked technologies become platforms for the paradoxes of social relations in digital culture.

The project is built by anonymous Internet contributors filled with content “written by Internet users concerning their relationships with the Internet.”

While browsing, I found this daguerreotype-related nugget that speaks to me about the Daguerreotype’s longevity:

Dear Internet,

Hey it’s me, the Daguerreotype. I know that to you, I am one of the many things that you seem to know everything about. But to me, I have found that we truly have a lot in common.

Like you, I paved the way for my chosen field. Like the way you have made so many things possible for communication, I have made great things happen in the world of photography. You have had a great deal of success in all that you do. You connect people to information, to different places, and also to each other.

Since I came around, the world of photography has taken off. So many advancements have been made to make photography a more universal medium of art but also a medium that can communicate.

It has been said, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. A photograph, and evolved version of myself, can communicate so many different ideas and viewpoints, all within itself, one singular image. These images can be found in so many places now.

There are photographs in books, magazines, and computers. However one of the biggest venues for photographs is with you, the Internet. So you see, we are much more connected than you may have thought.

In fact, in many ways, I owe my evolved popularity to you. You make it possible for myself, as well as other types of photographs to reach a surplus of different people. So for that I thank you. Without you my work could not reach as many people as it can today.

Best,

The Daguerreotype