When I read the first chapter, "In Plato's Cave", of Susan Sontag's book, "On Photography", it felt eye-opening when I came to understand the main points she wanted to express in her book. She references Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", where prisoners in a cave mistake shadows on a wall for reality, and applies it to modern society. We live in a world where photographs make up what we perceive as reality when it is, in fact, not reality. I found it surprising to know that the people of today, the "prisoners", are treating photographic images, the "shadows", as the real thing, more so when I realize that I am also one of those many "prisoners".
As someone who grew up in the digital age, surrounded by smartphones and social media, I have taken photographs for granted. In times where I take photos with my camera, Sontag has made me realize that I have never attached any real meaning to them. I simply take the photo and move on, which might mean that I have been taking photos for the sake of taking them. As Sontag states, "photography is not practiced by most people as an art. It is mainly a social rite, a defense against anxiety, and a tool of power." (page 8)
Another thing I have come to learn about is how photographers are capable of manipulating the photos they take. They can be altered so that the context will seem completely different from what it originally once was. For example, an "ugly or grotesque subject may be moving because it has been dignified by the attention of the photographer." (page 15) While I did know that it was possible to edit photographs, these photos, as previously stated, are what viewers may end up seeing as the real world. As much as I did not want to believe it, Sontag knows that these images are capable of influencing people. That is why Sontag wants photographers to keep that in mind so that they will have some sense of responsibility when working with photographic images.
The last and, in my opinion, the most disturbing point Sontag makes is how photographs can dull our emotions. To be more exact, it dulls how we respond to the images. I know this is true because I remember feeling a great sense of detachment in my past when looking at photographs, particularly during history classes when they show multiple images of tragedies such as war or genocide. "The quality of feeling, including moral outrage, that people can muster in response to photographs...also depends on the familiarity with these images." (page 19) In other words, repeated exposure to photographic images can result in being too familiar with them, as well as the fact that viewers might treat those very images as reality.
Overall, this chapter has helped me see that, within the world of photography, it is not as innocent as I perceived it to be. While I found it to be unexpected and even unpleasant at times, what I learned are the truths in photography. They are truths that have changed my thoughts not just on photography, but on how I see the world itself.
As it is implied from the title of the article, "With ‘AI slop’ distorting our reality, the world is sleepwalking into disaster", by Nesrine Malik, this is about AI shaping the perspectives of people and not in a good way. Malik demonstrates this by referencing various examples of AI-generated content and explains why it is terrible. There are also details as to how these images are applied to the real world.
To explain what "AI slop" is, it is essentially "...low-quality content with minimal human input." (Paragraph 1) To add on, it has an impressively large quantity of such content and is capable of covering a wide range of topics. As such, even though some may know better, there are others who believe in the images and videos created by AI. As a matter of fact, Malik mentions how she is "...in a constant struggle with an otherwise online-savvy elderly relative who receives and believes a deluge of AI content on WhatsApp about Sudan’s war." (Paragraph 4)
When I read this article, it did not particularly surprise me that AI has been detrimental to viewers. This is even more so when I myself am familiar with AI and some of its products, like images. If there was something I found shocking, it was how people seem to pay too much attention over AI. For example, "Chinese AI videos mocking overweight US workers on assembly lines after the tariff announcement raised a question for, and response from, the White House spokesperson last week." (Paragraph 2) If even the White House responded, either this "AI slop" is something greater than I thought or people are just making a big deal out of it.
While I do find this entire thing to be ridiculous, I can still agree with the points Malik makes in her article about how AI distorts how we see reality. One of those points is how the "...sense of urgency and action that our crisis-torn world should inspire is instead blunted by how information is presented." (Paragraph 10) I know this is true since I have been exposed to a large amount of things, AI-generated or not, that should have inspired that same sense of urgency and it is to the point where I can hardly care at all.
Another point I agree with is how "Most of the time, AI slop is just content-farming chaos." (Paragraph 7) With the amount of low quality content AI produces, I can see that it is simply to garner engagement from the viewers. There is also the fact that it does not take much effort to create "AI slop". As Malik puts it, "To social media giants, content is content; the cheaper it is, the less human labour it involves, the better." (Chapter 7)
To sum it all up, Malik's article has shown me that AI, despite its shortcomings, is more capable than I initially expected. I made assumptions that people would not be believing in all the videos, images, and whatever AI can create, let alone be attentive to them. In addition, I got to learn of how AI can twist our perspectives on everything in the world.
In "Graphic Novel: Motherhood in crisis", by Laurence Ivil, Alicia Prager, and Saidu Bah, the story I will focus on is Kadiatu's "The devil at my door", a graphic novel. The story revolves around Kadiatu, whose first children had died. To make matters worse, the community around her treated her harshly because they believed she was involved with the devil by sacrificing her own children, which instilled fear upon the majority of the community. On top of the terrible treatment, she went through other troubles, such as the unbearable pain from an pregnancy and her son, Abdul, having fallen ill suddenly. In her desperation, Kadiatu turns to the hospital despite her fears after the Ebola crisis where people with Ebola never returned from the hospital. However, she was fortunately able to receive the help she very much needed in the end and seems to be living well with her children.
I think illustration was used in the graphic novel in order to better portray the entirety of Kadiatu's experience for readers to see and understand. Without the illustrations, it would have been more difficult to visualize certain things such as the living environment Kadiatu was in or what expressions she was making to show her pain. Illustrations help depict situations that would be otherwise hard to show in any other way in a more simplistic way.
The photographs differ visually from the illustrations in that they are more realistic than illustrations. By utilizing illustrations instead of photographs, it makes it far more difficult to capture the details that can be seen in real life while photographs are capable of doing just that. Said details include the terrain, the lighting, the shadows, the textures, the colors, and more. Photographs are simply the better option if one wants to have depictions of real life that are as real as can be while illustrations are imitations of real life scenes.
That said, there are advantages unique to illustrations compared to text or photography. For one, illustrations are able to be more flexible in portraying situations that may be hard to get on photo or describe in text, like taking a picture of the traditional healer in Kadiatu's story. Another advantage is that it can be much easier to send a message across to readers of the graphic novel, like being able to express what the environment of Sierra Leone is like for pregnant women. Photography or text may not be able to properly show the message as well as a simple illustration.
After reading the entirety of "The devil at my door", I certainly found it to be a completely different experience than what I am used to. It is shocking to me just how poorly Kadiatu was being treated despite the fact that she did not have any fault in what happened to her children, even more so when she was treated as an outcast due to some ridiculous superstitious reasoning. I found the illustrations, text, photographs, and video to be extremely helpful in explaining all of Kadiatu's story as a grieving mother.