I understand that Hito Steyerl wants to emphasize the importance of high-resolution images, and its copyright. But sometimes, low-resolution photos are a way to record life events or pop culture in the era. Just like some people like to write notes on the phone or sketch the ideas down on papers, they don’t have to be high quality or complete. It is just a process of recording and not forgetting what happened before. With the advence of technology, people spread lots of good and bad resolution images on the internet. There are always upsides and downsides to everything. However, if people can see the benefits of sharing images of the past, even though they are low-resolution pictures, they remind people of past events.
What’s more, even if not in the past, people sometimes record low quality pictures in todays event as well. I think high-quality images definitely stand critical roles in many aspects, but “poor images” existence is also very essential.