From the very beginning of the introduction, the author, German visual artist Hito Steyerl has clearly stated the low-end state of the ‘poor image’ underlain by resolution. Easily accessed and processible, they are often shadowed as subordinate. However, therein exists a contradiction of it degrading and deciphering the original ones. The situation is, as argued, further intensified in the digital era.

In the first chapter, Steyerl draws upon Woody Allen’s films to outline the hierarchy based on focus and resolution. In this context, as she wrote, the ‘pristine visuality’ is fetishized. The industrialized production of high-end imagery is thus absorbed by the capitalist system, within which the non-commercial visual products, as Steyerl unpacks in the following chapter, are marginalized. As a consequence, the few surviving the processing and reproduction, especially by virtue of the online streaming, reappear as ‘poor image’.

Such resurrection is linked to broader historical background by Steyerl in the third chapter. The neoliberal structure had reshaped the industry. Meanwhile, the destruction of institutions and facilities following the nation collapse from the post-socialist and postcolonial subversion renders the visual archive unsheltered. Such decline, along with the growth of market, have accelerated the privatization, and even piracy.

Then Steyerl refers to the notion of Imperfect Cinemaby Cuban director Julio Garcia Espinosa. Opposed to the reactionary-regarded ‘perfect cinema’, it forms the site to unite labour regardless of class divisions, which process is moreover fuelled by the video technology. While decreased the visuality, larger scale of public is involved. Built upon that is the global distribution network that also underlies the battlefield for commercial and national agendas.

Steyerl also bridges the distinctions between ‘poor image’, conceptual artistic practice and semiotic production. Referencing to the idea of ‘semiotic turn’ by philosopher Felix Guattari, she suggests another value of image defined by spread. The separation of the images themselves and their context, or, ‘the dematerialization’, increases in, as Steyerl phrases, the ‘economies of knowledge’.

In the last chapter, Steyerl returns to how the ‘poor image’ take effects to a realistic extent. A sense of instability lies in the conflicts between the experimental and commercial cinema, the accumulation of data and the interaction between screens and spectators. Steyerl also utilizes ‘visual bond’ by Russian director Dziga Vertov to exemplify the linking power between both individuals and realities from various eras.

To conclude with, Steyerl again emphasizes the marginal nature of the 'poor image'. It comes with much complexity at the new stage of history, while the authenticity has been questioned constantly.  Hence, they will remain to mirror the originals and further intensify the reality, which is now filled with spectacles and illusions.

Reference:

 Steyerl, H. (2009) 'In Defense of the Poor Image', e-Flux, (10). Available at: https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/ (Accessed: 7 May 2019).