Project Proposal ‘Digital Anxiety’

For this module I have been exploring the anxiety of living in the modern age, this has primarily included researching the relationship of the interference of digital media in daily human lives. Initially my intentions for studio practice were based in the field of painting, around responsive, emotional outcomes. I have realised I need to remove myself from the work, ensuring it is not representational of my own emotional state, although I recognize that emotions can influence art.

Concept/Theme

In my the beginnings of my experimentation, I was utilizing techniques such as photographing self portraits and digitally manipulating them with intentions of making them appear older. The use of digital media in my work is prominent, however I recently found my DSLR camera had broken, while it has been sent away for repairs I found myself without this extension of myself I have been so used to. I began searching for other ways to express ideas outside of the conventional ease of digital photography. This void I felt, being separated from something I’d been relying on, triggered the ideas for my project. I began experimenting with scanning materials such as string, wire, found images and then manipulating this imagery together. Artists who practice relate to my work include Emma Mcnally, I was drawn to her instinctual use of graphite, manipulation of wire and obsessive mapping of thought. Another artist I have researched is Hannah Sawtell, currently exhibiting at The Forum, in Southend. Hannah Sawtell explores elements of the digital realm and gives it life within reality, the exploration of sculpture, video and photography gives her work multiple dimensions. An artist I recently came across is Grayson Perry, whom constructs digitally made tapestries with Computer-Aided Design, his tapestries are narratives of people’s lives he follows, documents and describes it with a traditional method, with digital technology.

My intentions in this project are to explore the development of how media is becoming an extension of ourselves, the changing social structure incorporating social media into our everyday lives, to the point where our communication has shifted completely. Everyday we experience new innovations, for example the ever increasing popularity of dating websites over face to face communication. Technology is being introduced into the education system, and with infants using tablet computers below the age of 2 years old, this seriously effects their social skills. I want to understand how this affects people’s lives in a negative sense and positive. I hope to use a methodology incorporating the translation of ideas within traditional methods colliding with contemporary and digital mediums.

In the next phase of the project I utilized film photography, by experimenting with traditional processes, this related my work to the death of photography, the constant and rapidly changing technology in our world. This generates an understandable amount of anxiety surrounding information, ease of access, censorship and what is being hidden from us. This is especially significant with people who believe in conspiracies and the supernatural. My artwork aims to describe this anxiety and will do so by encompassing a range of media, in a process driven response. I wish to address the ideas that the mass media generates, as information travels very quickly, we can learn what is happening around the world within seconds. The purpose of my work is to explore how our social structure is changing in accordance with our rapidly growing digital world.

I began experimenting with dismantling a broken computer, and using the different computer components I have removed from the machine to create visualizations such as prints, paintings and collages. I would like to experiment further with the visual and audio side to technological interference and investigate the consistent use of sound and perpetual imagery of the modern age. Screens, advertisements, lights and general technology that have become integrated surround us constantly into our lives.

For my final piece for the exhibition, I will record my daily life through four different methods: DSLR camera with HD video function, my mobile phone, my computer tablet and pen and paper. I am proposing a visual-audio piece that will utilize my exploration into obsessive recording, in reference to the digital age in which we log our every move on social media. The footage and general information I collate during the next 4 weeks will be used as a visual metaphor for technological interference in everyday life, the increasing lack of patience the majority of people have today, this is assimilated with the fact the human attention span is decreasing as we rely on music, televisions, and various other forms of constant entertainment of the senses. There is rarely silence in our lives, unless we switch off the electronic devices, but as we do so, we close the door to the digital realm and some of us may feel anxious to step away from technology.

During my research I visited ‘MIRRORCITY’ at the Hayward Gallery in London, the exhibition featured various artists working in many different areas to produce work to a specified theme: Personifying the mirrored digital world humanity has created, in parallel to the real world. We create online personas that reflect what we wish to become, what we wish we could achieve. The world online feels like it bears no ramifications upon the real world. The work of Susan Hiller inspired me, her use of audio-visual interaction with the space itself, the room was darkened to add a sense of comfort to the atmosphere, yet the installation content itself was unsettling, as reports read aloud in distorted human voices, of UFO reports from the 1900’s – 2000’s began to resound from behind a large screen.

The visual-audio piece I propose would include distorted sound recordings, which will be coupled with fragmented visuals of my daily life. During the upcoming weeks until exhibition I will keep a log of my everyday life using my DSLR, and utilize video recording.