(13:15)

     When visual anthropologist Sol Worth declared that “pictures can’t say ain’t”, the year was 1981.  Thirty odd years later we’ve taught our pictures to not only say “ain’t”, but we’ve taught them how to speak more perfectly than we, their makers, even understand.  But now that our pictures can speak, what could they be telling us?  If you listen closely, each tells of utter exploitation, regardless of subject or “production value”. 

          Zoom, Pan, Cut, with soothing voice-over. 

                     All the world’s an edit.

     When media-makers construct their communications with identical techniques and tools, and with identical intention, every media story becomes an identical lie.   In this video I use Sol Worth’s mentor, Margaret Mead, to remind us.   We exploitative while making our advertisements exactly as we make we make our news -- exactly as we make ourselves.

     But now with our news coverage of horrific events, indeed even heartfelt tragic events happening in our own backyard, images are conveyed with the exact kind of solipsistic pity that leads us to nothing except nothingness.