e-scape v: autonomous edition (2014)

a short video series that examines the presence of technology in nature. 5 minutes, looped video/sound by Stephen Ausherman original score by The Kevin Costner Suicide Pact

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Artist Statement

The Cherry Creek Arts Festival partnered with 2013 Festival sponsor Arrow Electronics in the Arrow Five Years Out Art Challenge, a national challenge to inspire artists to take the concept of innovation and express what five years out looks like in the art world, translating ideas into their artistic medium.

Through a competitive and collaborative selection process, a jury of regional artists and at professionals chose seven finalists out of an application pool of over 120 artists. Each finalist received a $5,000 commission to create a forward-thinking piece to be displayed at the 2013 Arts Festival

e-scape v explores the presence of technology in open spaces, revealing with a sense of magical realism the ways in which electronics—portable devices, infrastructure and refuse—alter our perceptions of the outdoors. Interwoven for single-channel display, this assemblage of ambient loops illustrates a series of abstract narratives: Nature revives a discarded TV, then consumes it; a window both divides and duplicates our view of a mountain landscape; an electric fence supplies power to electric sheep, the kind androids allegedly dream of; and kabuki beacons stream festive data into an otherwise stagnant swamp.

I shot every frame of the e-scape v series on one camera, subjecting it to conditions that well exceeded its environmental ratings. I edited the footage using experimental techniques that often crashed my laptop. The results were usually far from inspiring, yet on rare occasion an image surfaced that was too lovely to attribute to a technical glitch. This led me to contemplate what ghosts resided in my machines, and what might happen if a virtual entity manifested itself in the physical world. (Given recent advances in additive layer manufacturing, it's not such a stretch to imagine a rogue virus hacking a 3D printer, materializing itself and escaping into the wild.)

With that in mind, I modeled a Trojan virus to resemble its namesake horse, then set it loose to document its interaction with the real world. I did not anticipate that it would attack my kabuki beacons. Nor did I expect nature to unleash her vengeance upon the creature and its offspring. In my attempt to develop symbiotic relationships between the environment and technology, I created a monster. Perhaps it should serve as a cautionary tale for innovators who build machines intended to enhance our outdoor experiences.

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