A poor image is the ghost of an image. It is an image that followed a process at the expense of its own meaning, changing its focus. From being uploaded to downloaded and shared, images undergo systematic modifications where the outcome is uncertain and uncontrolled (Steyerl, 2012, pp. 31–45).
I chose to explain Hito Steyerl’s In Defence of the Poor Image according to the Conditional Design Manifesto from the Conditional design workbook . This manifesto explains the concept of conditional design where the approach is more valued than the chosen media, where graphic design becomes a tool or an instrument. Because conditional design is about designing design, workshops are described as games, with a set of conditions and rules.
I translated Hito Steyerl’s text into a workshop game to demonstrate the transformative and collective method of creation of poor images.
Workshop
IN DEFENSE OF THE POOR IMAGE
X Play with multiple participants. X The game takes place in a world that idolizes high-quality images
1, • Preparation
1.1, Choose an original, fixed image.
2, • Circulation
2.1, Make it circulate outside official economies — on file-sharing platforms, torrents, or social media.
2.2, Make it mutate : copies, downloads, and reshares add layers of translation and context.
2.3, Challenge aesthetic and economic hierarchies : poor images are democratic in access but highlight global inequalities.
2.4, Encourage collective circulation rather than fixed ownership, like artworks confined to museums.
3, • Transformation
3.1, Each copy may alter contrast, color, or size.
3.2, Every degradation or glitch adds history, authorship, and survival value.
3.3, Resist the art world’s obsession with perfection, and exclusivity.
4, • Hierarchies of Resolution
4.1, Prevent high-resolution images from dominating the space.
4.2, Prioritize communication and movement over perfection.
4.3, Bring marginalized or radical visual cultures to light, instead of relegating them to the digital margins.
4.4, Defend access, democracy, and the right to visual culture against corporate and institutional control.
5, • Politics of the Poor Image
5.1, Mirror the precarious conditions of cultural workers and the commodification of media.
5.2, Make the images migrate: cross borders, languages, and formats freely, like displaced or fragmented communities.
5.3, Make it visual form of resistance — preserving political cinema, marginalized histories, and ideas excluded from mainstream distribution.
6, • Endgame
6.1, The game ends when the original is untraceable.
6.2, The poor image survives through circulation and movement.
Outcome :
The poor image is a low-resolution, often pirated or compressed copy of an original work. Its “poverty” does not diminish its cultural or political power; rather, it embodies access, circulation, mutation, and collective authorship. Poor images become living archives, resisting control while connecting communities and histories across space and time.
References :
– Maurer, L. (2013) Conditional Design Workbook. Amsterdam: Valiz, pp. ii–xiv.
– Steyerl, H. (2012) In Defence of the Poor Image. In: The Wretched of the Screen. Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp. 31–45.
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