"First, I do not include film as art in my thesis, but film (both still and motion) that can be considered as primary source material. Let's call it archivable imagery."



"Second, for any event that happened prior to "The Present", any primary source material retrieved from the internet must likewise be considered polluted. The only material that retains any primacy is that previously recorded in some other form before the internet and held for interpretation directly from that pre-internet form...."


Film and photography aren't just about escapism/entertainment a swath of it deports itself as historical fact or primary source as you call it when it palpably isn't the case and this pre-dates the internet AI etc by a good margin so I would opine should be included as a source as equally polluted as some CGI/AI created guff and equally unreliable.

Why must any primary source material culled from the net be termed polluted?

If I view an original Hindenburg picture in wherever museum/collection it resides or watch an original 35mm filmed Churchillian speech ditto, why would watching that self same thing on say YouTube or social media automatically render it polluted if the content remains the same/unaltered? Surely both states can exist?

Or have I misunderstood the premise?


I cannot find myself taking the default position that just because some historical event is/was web based it inhabits the De facto state of being "polluted" somehow.

Your argument seems to flow along the lines of If I show a genuine picture of my late father in Burma shaking hands with Mountbatten, (real event) during the last big show via the internet, then the veracity of said picture is now diminished due to the medium utilised rather than flying state-side and putting it your hands.

I do omit from all of this anything created in the realm of AI. I have had several musical works brought to my attention which on the one hand I marvel at the accuracy of the instrumental and vocal renditions contained therein even to the point of believing that if released twenty or so years previously it would top any pop/jazz/rock charts easily.

However it doesn't define true human creativity as no human input other than pressing "ENTER" on the PC keyboard was involved, is formulaic in nature after much listening and I will mourn for the generation that thinks this easy option is the way to make a musical buck or a top ten hit from now on so in that regard I think we are in agreement.