November 13-19, 2003

artpicks

"Philadelphians on Their Phones"

by Juliet Fletcher

art

Like tourists who experience the wonders of the world through the lens of a video camera, there’s something slightly myopic about always having a camera at hand, ready to immortalize Kodak moments. But, for those who can’t fight the urge to shutter-snap wherever they go, life has just got a good deal more interesting. Camera phones -- besides being handy for catching live-action stills of pratfalls and celebrity sightings -- provide perhaps the most surreptitious means of capturing scenes from the world revolving around us, in the emerging medium of the digital image.

This week, a collective of students from some of the area’s fine art institutions turn photo-documentarians, presenting a wholly city-specific look at life in Philadelphia. Completing the slightly self-reflexive focus of casual photography -- the tip of an auteur’s fingertip at the frame’s edge being its most common manifestation -- the show displays its medium with images of a town going about its business with a phone tucked under its ear. The work, by students from Moore, Hussian School of Art, UArts and Drexel, will be displayed on plasma screens at Highwire Gallery for one night only (pictured, a photo by Kelly Puleio). In spite of its technological base, hopefully the show’s creators have hit on a process untouched by artifice. After all, with the camera device concealed in an ordinary-looking phone, there’s no reason for its targets to get lens-shy.

"Philadelphians on Their Phones," Fri., Nov. 14, 6:30-10 p.m., free, Highwire Gallery, 137 N. Second St., 215-839-1255.

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