Studio

98 Days of Fallen Snow is the continued exploration of space from the investigations of Stepping Into Water and #ThisIslandShared. An interest in both meditation and digital space serves as the seed for this work. Earlier studies of digital space developed into a pursuit of liminal space, the transitional space within the mind.

As distractions of color and contrast are simplified, the process of drawing is focused to the point of meditation. The experience of creating this work more closely mirrors the experience of recollection. Finite details of landscape are lost into a hazy resemblance of place.

The flattened space of these landscapes offers freedom for the eye and mind to rest.

#ThisIslandShared serves as an imitation of visual media within social media platforms, specifically the shared image. It investigates how social media effects/enhances the experience of a location. What does it mean to physically share something in comparison to digitally sharing it?

In the first phase of #ThisIslandShared pixels were collected from numerous digital photos taken of the Icelandic landscape and then painted on small cubes. These voxels (a voxel is a voluminous pixel that exists within our three-dimensional space) were finished and mailed out to participants around the world. Some of the voxels remained in the Skagaströnd community.

Once participants received the cubes they were encouraged to photograph them within their own environment and post them on any social media platform under the hashtag #ThisIslandShared. Having been separated through the mailing process the voxels were re-assembled through being ‘shared’ online.

Visual information is dissected, investigated, and reinvented in 000000, a collaborative effort with sound and new media artist Kyle Evans. Using hexadecimal black (000000) as a starting point, and set up under a responsive construct across the Northern Atlantic Ocean, information was deconstructed and interpreted back and forth for the duration of 3 months. Much like the popular children’s game of telephone, with each regurgitation of visual data the message is altered. From the absence of color 000000, new hues, movement, and the substance of material is found.

Step 1. Choose a pixel, any pixel.

Step 2. Paint the pixel, somewhat carefully matching color. Best to use a thick application of paint.

Step 3. Photograph the painted pixel to put it back into a digital format. Bonus! You now have new pixels.

Step 4. Row by row, record each of the second generation pixel’s colors in hexadecimal code. You will find that the mind wanders and mistakes are made.

Step 5. Plug the code back into a color picker to produce each second generation pixel’s color.

Step 6. Paint each pixel again with oil paint.