User:Marlon/what

TSUNAMI

This graduation project consists of 1134 postcards laid out in a grid on the floor. There are 26 columns and 48 rows, forming a large square. Near the bottom some postcards are missing, as if it’s a work in progress. On each postcard a picture is printed, some postcards show just one, some have the same image repeated several times. The original resolution of the image is maintained. In the case of a bigger image, multiple postcards are used to create that image. It is possible to walk around the collection of cards and examine them, revealing a URL printed on the back, or to view it in its entirety from a distance.

Only 30 distinctively different pictures were used to depict the tsunami that occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011. It's not just a selection of photographs taken in Japan during that time - famous woodcut prints of off-shore waves, stills from movies and pictures taken during a different tsunami were also included. The collection of cards contains multiple copies of these images, varying in quality, resolution and source. Laid out chronologically from the top left corner, the postcards show water and waves, fire and explosions and finally, the debris and destruction that was left after a natural disaster.

A fascination with virality in relation to the World Wide Web, led to an extensive Google search of images. The subject: an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. The Internet is constantly repeating the same information, in text or in image. Word-of-mouth on a gigantic scale. I selected the most common images that accompanied articles, blogs or tweets about the tsunami, even if those images were not taken in Japan at all. (Natural) disasters are visual stories and the images that most accurately capture the imagination of the viewer are very popular online.

The images were printed on postcards, as they often refer to a specific location. In this case not only to the actual site of the disaster, but – by adding the URL on the back of the card – to the source of the image as well. Placing these cards on the floor in a chronological order symbolises the viral spread of online pictures, while at the same time a pattern is created that shows the course of a natural disaster. I think this project succeeded in overloading the viewer with imagery of a disaster. It shows there is something horribly beautiful about these images, which is possibly the reason of their popularity online. Some shame was felt by viewers who at first glance did not link the work to the tsunami, but did find it visually attractive.

There is a sense of repetition, also enhanced by the use of the postcards, but the project does not immediately show its relation to the internet. Or to an internet search. It requires some interaction with the project, by flipping a card and reading the URL printed on the back, showing you the source. That might not explain to the viewer why and how these images were selected. As the memories of the disaster fade for anyone but those still living in the aftermath, the project is getting quite dated. It is losing some of its relevance, because it is linked to a definite moment in time.

REALITY BY PROXY

Written in my last year of art school, Reality by proxy is a thesis that explores the subject of (hyper)reality. Its four chapters deal with perception, media, media filters and imitation. In the conclusion a quote by Dutch scientist and philosopher Koert van Mensvoort is used, “Is it real or fake? More real than real? Faker than fake? You decide. It all depends on your frame of reference.”

The thesis was printed on white tractor-feed paper, the tear edges are still intact. This results in a very long scroll of paper. Most of the words are underlined and look similar to online hyperlinks, turning the thesis into a physical hypertext. Some images are interspersed throughout the text, but they are so distorted they look like computer errors.

When folded the thesis resembles a booklet. Besides a small piece of paper with the title, the cover consists of two A3-size pages folded in half, again with the typical perforations of continuous stationery. Printed on one side of each page are a total of 30 grainy black and white images, used to emphasise the thesis’ subject.

As it became such an important part of the thesis, a form had to be created that really underscores the importance of ‘media’ in relation to ‘reality’. Text and images were printed using a 15 year-old dot matrix printer. The end result depended for the most part on how the printer would handle the source material. It read some images as commands and rendered others completely unrecognisable, like a computer glitch on print. The hyperlinks added to the text allow the reader to choose his or her own path through the material. As a result, the medium becomes as important as the message itself.

To really understand the choices I made to create this outcome, you must be somewhat familiar with the subjects I explored while writing the thesis. Since only a handful of people have read the thesis, I can only speak for myself. The thesis is not literally a physical recreation of a hypertext, simply because it is not an electronic device. Attempting to click the “hyperlinks” will not result in anything happening. The idea of turning something electronic into something physical was a way for me to establish parameters. And by using the dot matrix printer and leaving some of the design choices to the machine, the influence of a medium is investigated.

Marlon Harder 20:22, 16 October 2012