Taysir Batniji, Disruptions, Loose Joints
Photomonitor, 2024
[Available to read here]
For those unacquainted with life in the Middle East, the frustration of a glitchy internet connection might be challenging to grasp. It is a test of patience: constant yelling, endless repetition of words and phrases, and a chorus of desperate pleas – “Can you still hear me? Are you still there?” These questions, as Taous R. Dahmani writes in the introduction to Taysir Batniji’s recent book, Disruptions, echo his exploration of these very words, the glitches, and the tears that permeate video calls home.
The book presents a poignant collection of screenshots captured by Taysir Batniji between April 24, 2015, and June 23, 2017. These snapshots were taken during video calls with his mother and family in Gaza, Palestine, while he resided in Paris, unable to return home. Through a distinct and post-internet aesthetic, Batniji employs a harsh green hue to subtly obscure faces and buildings, effectively removing objects from the scene. The green artifacts seen in digital broadcasts, particularly during poor connections or signal interference, often result from Chroma Subsampling. When transmission errors occur, the chroma information can be lost or corrupted, leading to these green visual anomalies. Green, being a dominant colour in typical video content, tends to manifest as these glitches. Sometimes, these artifacts can also be the result of transmission errors, where corrupted data, when decoded, produce visual anomalies, including the telltale green glitches. What sets Batniji’s work apart is his minimalist approach, allowing the bare essentials to assume maximum significance. The glitches and tears that permeate these virtual connections evoke a sense of longing – a yearning for clarity amidst the digital disruptions. As viewers, we find ourselves contemplating the hidden narratives behind these fragmented moments, where pixels stand in for human presence.
The parallels with the current situation in Palestine are striking. Just as the glitches in Batniji’s images prevent us from fully seeing lives and deaths, real-world events often obscure the humanity behind headlines. We search for signs of life, for a community amid chaos. The pixelated screenshots from Taysir’s phone serve as a stark reminder, stirring anxiety and prompting reflection. Every day, we witness the destruction of Palestine through news broadcasts and social media. There, we constantly scrutinise image authenticity. However, Taysir’s screenshots offer a unique perspective – a personal war narrative. We immediately validate his imagery and empathise with his account, even though he spares us from the war’s most horrific and direct images. This personalisation of the narrative extends to the point where the suffering of a Palestinian family becomes emblematic of the suffering of an entire nation. We place ourselves in his position and contemplate the relationships with the pixelated faces and places in the screenshots. The invisible violence conveyed by Taysir’s pixels compels us to look towards today’s reality with unfiltered eyes, unencumbered by any digital glitches.
In one of the photographs, perhaps the most information-dense, a man, centred in the frame with his back to the viewer in a bazaar, works on a strange object. The scene appears calm, yet the pixelated screenshot collapses it – the bazaar, streets, and all objects seem to teeter on the brink. This visual distortion piques our curiosity about the phone conversation. Was the person on the other end showing something familiar to Taysir, a childhood haunt or a cherished memory? What stories and conversations were exchanged? While the artist may hold the answers, the beauty lies in speculation. Perhaps the questions themselves hold more weight than the answers. They prompt us to delve within, to find our own interpretations.
“Disruption” is defined as the action of preventing something—especially a system, process, or event—from continuing as usual or as expected. However, in Arabic, it resonates more closely with “jamming.” Imagine radio waves intentionally distorted, rendering news unheard—a metaphor for the book’s themes. Other Arabic equivalents include “nuisance,” “bother,” “upset,” “disturbance,” “riot,” “unrest” and “disorder.” The book opens with its title prominently displayed on the first page, followed by a heartfelt dedication from Taysir on the next page to his mother, whom he lost in 2017, and the fifty-two members of his immediate family, including his sister and his brother and their family who were murdered by the Israeli bombings in November 2023. The subsequent pages showcase a chronological array of photos starting on April 24, 2015. Images are extracted from his phone, thoughtfully juxtaposed with specific dates and interspersed with solid green colours. The book’s text is trilingual, written in Arabic, French, and English, culminating in a touching piece by Taous R. Dahmani, a writer and historian of photography. Creating such a book under these challenging conditions is nothing short of remarkable – a thought-provoking photobook and a witness to the pain and suffering endured by a family enduring a campaign of complete erasure. The book stands as a testament to solidarity with the legitimate struggle for Palestinian freedom. It boldly opposes the genocide imposed by the state of Israel upon Palestine. Loose Joints, the publisher and design studio echo this sentiment. All profits generated from the sales of Disruptions directly support the NGO Medical Aid Palestine, providing essential medical assistance where it is needed most.
Disruptions by Taysir Batniji is published by Loose Joints, for further viewing see @jointsloose and @taysir_batniji
Disruptions / Taysir Batniji
Softcover, 128 pagesISBN 978-1-912719-52-5 LJ195
Published by Loose Joints
All images © Taysir Batniji 2024 courtesy Loose Joints.