ONE SMALL SEED MAGAZINE Issue #26 Digital 01 | Page 5
editor's letter
Why reality? And how is it ironic?
I always thought when I get an article published in print, then I’ve made it.
Now, with the launch of one small seed as a digital magazine, that still hasn’t
happened but I realise it doesn’t matter. The medium has changed but the
feeling of achievement remains the same. A digital screen – might not be as
‘tangible’ as a book that you can touch, smell and cut your fingers with if you
don’t handle the pages properly – but each article still has a real effect on
the reader. Negative, positive, unfazed – there’ll be a reaction.
Reality is ultimately rooted in what you experience, not in what you touch.
It’s perceived subjectively, and has many interpretations. Urban Artist SOAP
(p.58) believes that ‘science demonstrates that visual proof is the weakest
proof. What we see, feel and touch is not real at all.’ And when photographer
Sam Norval thinks of ‘something truly real and honest,’ he suggests that ‘we
almost don’t believe it to be true or honest. We tend to look for the deception
and untruths more than just accepting the reality presented in front of us.’
Jee Young Lee (p.32) captures an otherworldly dreamscape with props that
you can touch, Oliver Barnett (p.64) photographs the organic to achieve an
abstract image, and Rebecca Handler (p.48) challenges popular history and
myth by contrasting it with our modern-day reality.
What’s more, make-believe is getting easier with the rise of ever-advancing
technology, and we’re becoming increasingly obsessed with constructing
a reality that suits us. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram help us to polish
and frame the portrait of our lives to perfection. It’s a fabricated reality,
that’s often accepted as authentic. Media with ‘an easily accessible truth’
(as opposed to abstract art), such as photography, film and photo-realistic
paintings, can help us build this reality – and often they’re more deceiving
than we think.
Art, photography, science… Paper, canvas, computer screens… Realism,
surrealism, hyperrealism. They’re all symbols for something real, and it’s your
call to use them to make sense of the world. No matter what you choose,
we’ll agree on one thing: subjectivity is and always will be real.
Christine Hogg / editor
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT : CHRISTINE HOGG, LAUREN DE SOUSA, SARAH-CLAIRE PICTON, GIUSEPPE RUSSO