WRT: Writer Response Theory

Matt Siber is a photographer who strips images of their text and repositions them. ‘The Untitled Project’ was in 2003, but Siber has updated it with new images in 2004. The removal of the text from corporate signs is quite uncanny. I was surprised at how ‘quiet’ the images, the scenes, seemed when ‘text’ was removed. But Siber doesn’t completely remove the text, he places it is approximately the same position in a white frame beside the photo. Here is how he describes the project:

The Untitled Project is rooted in a base interest in the nature of power. With the removal of all traces of text from the photographs, the project explores the manifestation of power between large groups of people in the form of public and semi-public language. The absence of the printed word not only draws attention to the role text plays in the modern landscape but also simultaneously emphasizes alternative forms of communication such as symbols, colors, architecture and corporate branding. In doing this, it serves to point out the growing number of ways in which public voices communicate without using traditional forms of written language.

His other project, Floating Logos, brings to life the many sci-fi depictions of future advertising too.