Description used to be a rarity; now it’s universal. Foucault – ‘Power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production’. Forms of control have always involved precise description, defining the terms of control, that controlled.
The information revolution means that everything can be described, categorised, held; tags on the side of the page. Your purchases tracked. But that description is democratised – I describe, with my camera, impose my own little world. Am I a collaborator with, a participant in or a prisoner of description? All three, at one time or another…