This is a video study on how technologies negotiate the construction of perception, challenging conventional boundaries between the real and the virtual. Major perceptual shifts produced by an interplay of architecture, media and technology are here played out in three parts.
ACT 1
Cultural constructions of nature as an ideal, boundless territory. In the early days of the Internet, this sense of optimistic euphoria echoed across cyberspace.
ACT 2
Telecommunication and television networks shook the physical boundaries of space. Broadcasted on the news are major 20th century events that disolved natural and manmade borders, coexisting with and flattened by consumerist propaganda.
ACT 3
The impact of the personal computer connected to the Internet erodes the established socio-cultural ground and draws a different connection to the landscape. Consequently, the transition from computer to environment challenges the realness of the latter.
In overall, this study reflects on what is real or just perceived as such. How is the definition of reality contingent on the context and subject to change over time? What potential do moments of transition hold? What is lost and gained by the understanding of boundaries as conventions waiting to be transcended?
Credits
All graphics are made by the author, except from the following:
– “Bliss” Wallpaper (1996), a photograph shot by Charles O’Rear and used by Microsoft as the wallpaper of Windows XP in 2000.
– TV turning on and off effect
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E-vv1aL-JHU/maxresdefault.jpg
– NYC skyline
https://www.clipartsgram.com/image/198186167-city-skyline-new-york-silhouette-clipart-free-clip-art-images.jpg
-CNN Breaking News
https://i0.wp.com/borntowintheworld.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/breaking-news2.jpg?w=336%3Fw%3D299&resize=350%2C200
– Still from the movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
http://smokinggunpr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/maxresdefault-1.jpg
– “Buzz” Aldrin on the moon, Apollo 11 mission by NASA (1969)
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/AS11-40-5875HRedit.jpg
– Berliners celebrate the fall of the Wall, a photograph by John Tlumacki (1989), Getty Images
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2014-11/3/15/enhanced/webdr04/longform-original-9535-1415045851-20.jpg?downsize=715:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto
– First Big Mac advertisement, (1969)
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cc/2d/64/cc2d640392497ab27fed742374e4ac31–big-mac-mcdonalds.jpg
– Coca Cola advertisement (1991)
https://www.iclasspro.com/uploads/coca-cola-cropped.jpg
– Wall phone icon from freevector.co
http://freevector.co/vector-icons/technology/wall-phone-2.html
– Mail icon from openclipart.org
https://openclipart.org/detail/29117/unread-mail-icon
– Computer icon from vecteezy.com
https://www.vecteezy.com/vector-art/100130-vector-computer-illustration-set
– Twitter logo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Twitter_bird_logo_2012.svg
