The image I chose is by Polish artist Pawel Kuczynski, a graduate of the Fine Arts Academy in Poznan, Poland. Kuczynski is a political art satirist and philosopher who creates thought-provoking illustrations that comment on social, economic, and political issues. The image, named “surgery,” shows two surgeons looking at and operating on a smart phone. The surgery appears to involve removing social media applications such as Facebook, Tumblr and Messenger from the smart phone. By looking at proximity, line and color we see that social media is comparable to a disease, which tells us that we need to take social media out of our phones. This image represents how social media is adversely impacting the lives of people to such an extent that it needs to be deliberately removed from our lives.

The two surgeons are very close to one another in the image, leaving little to no space between themselves and the phone.  They are both actively participating in the surgery in removing the applications from the phone, then stitching up where icons have already been removed. The closeness and posture of the two surgeons tells us that they are concentrating and very serious about the task at hand, as if the phone’s life depends on the removal of the applications. In drawing the two surgeons this way, I think the artist is trying to demonstrate the serious and negative impact social media is having on people’s lives. For example, Facebook is used to share every detail about a person’s life; who they are “friends” with, what they are doing, where they are doing it, how they got there.  Essentially, Facebook becomes an addictive part of a person’s life and to such an extent that it needs to be treated like a disease and removed.   

When looking at the area where the removed applications sit, it looks as if they are floating in a free space without anything holding them up. The icons also appear to have been removed in a deliberate order. We can visibly see the Facebook, Messages and Tumblr apps in one of the surgeon’s hands. Obviously, these apps are perceived to be more contagious or dangerous than that of the apps still remaining on the phone. This leads us to believe the other apps on the phone are much less important to the artist who is determined to have viewers focus solely on the social media apps. We can also see that the surgeons did not remove any game applications. Kuczynski obviously made the distinction that as distracting as games on smartphones may be, they don’t have the negative impact that the social media apps do. Along with the proximity of the image, line is also very important in deciphering its message.

When looking at the surgeons’ line of vision, we notice that they are both looking straight down at the phone. Since the phone is an inanimate object, it cannot look back at the surgeons and it has no way of having an expression. The fact that we also cannot see the rest of the surgeons’ bodies and their specific body lines tells us that the artist does not want us to look at their bodies. Kuczynski clearly wants the main focus of the piece to involve the apps being removed from the ‘body’ of the phone. It’s as if the phone represents a real person, the person is sick, and the sickness has reached a level where they need surgery to fix the problem. The artist is showing that the problem within the phone, or person, are the social media apps. In order to cure the phone of its sickness, the surgeons needed to remove the apps. After an operation, people will generally usually have stitches and ultimately scars. On the phone, we can clearly see lines where the apps once lived.  These infections are what corrupted the phone in the first place, as shown by the sickly color of green representing disease. 

The color of this image is clearly meant to represent how social media is comparable to a disease or sickness. When smart phones or any type of mobile device are depicted in an image or picture, the screen is white or blue, projecting healthiness and well-being. In this case, the background of the phone is a sickly greenish color. We can also see that the phone is radiating the color off onto the lab coats of the surgeons. It’s as if the sickness on the phone and the addictive nature of the social media applications is radiating outwardly onto and contaminating the surgeons themselves. This shows how powerful social media is and its importance in many people’s lives. 

The color gradient in the image background also shows the importance of what is happening with the patient. Towards the top, there is a dark almost empty looking area where several applications have been removed. The color is slowly changing from the sickly green back to a healthy look of white; a feeling of wellness.  However, as we move down the gradient, the green gets brighter where the surgeons are working on removing the applications. Even the applications that were removed are placed on top of the sickly green color. This gradient shows that the focal point of the image is the phone which is why it’s brighter and our eyes are drawn to it. Because there is no other background to distract us, our eyes are also drawn to the apps that lie on and off the phone screen. 

By looking at Kuczynski’s image, “surgery,” we can clearly see that the proximity, line and color of the image show how social media is equivalent to a disease. This tells us that we need to take social media out of our lives and more specifically, our phones. The proximity of the two surgeons tells us that the surgery is extremely important, and that the phones life depends on removing the apps. Social media is very controlling and to some, addictive. We can clearly infer that the social media apps are more viral than the ones still on the screen, such as the weather app, because they are being removed first before anything else. Kuczynski clearly wants the main focus of the piece to be the excision of the social media applications from the ‘body’ of the phone, and the sickly color they sit upon. Looking at the brighter green color, we see that it is emitted onto lab coats and bodies of the surgeons. The ‘sicknesses’ on the phone, which are the social media apps, are radiating their sickness onto the surgeons. We also see that the color is slowly changing from a dark green to a bright colored green. The artist is trying to direct our focus towards the phone rather than the background of the piece. The image also transitions back to a healthy look of a whiter green, which is a sign of wellness.  The image clearly represents the artist’s commentary that social media use through smart phones is adversely impacting the lives of people to such an extent that it needs to be forcefully removed from our lives.
