The conceptual theme I want to work with this semester deals with Man’s place in the natural world. This is a broad and abstract thought and I’ve not quite pinned down where I want to go with it exactly. Ultimately I just kind of see humanity as having the ability to be another destructive force in nature no worse nor better than a flood, hurricane, drought etc. at the same time being just as vulnerable. This is where I see the significance in using digital media to convey this concept, the amount of damage humanity has done to the environment correlates to our technological advances.
The reason this theme interests me is partly due to some of the traveling I’ve done. I’ve noticed to some degree that the environmental characteristics of a location have as much an effect on the people as the culture does. From my experience, places that have overbearing natural elements (mountains, oceans, forests) close by also tend to have cultural views and laws that are more respectful or considerate of the environment. Cities that do not have these kinds of elements present tend to continually expand/grow their city limits and populations, further imposing human development into nature. To me it’s as though the grandness of nature only comes to our awareness when it is literally present, even though it’s always present regardless.
I want to continue using Photoshop with digital video to explore stylistic ‘video paintings’ that function somewhere between video and animation and exist as projected video loops. I would also like to incorporate sculptural elements in some of the projects and make multi-channel installations. I want to allow the pixilation and scan lines to come through and “be” in a similar way that the modern painters allowed the brush strokes and paint drips to be what they are on a painting.
