1 /5 This project investigates the following macro-areas: the relationship between human-environment and the notion of adaptation in the Anthropocene. The book that constituted the main catalyst to the research is The Age of the Earthquakes by Douglas Coupland, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Shumon Basar, which aims at discussing data and its impact on the planet, consequently questioning the way we live and exist in the world today.
2 /5 In the data technology era, data stratification produced by humans through everyday use of technology is having an impact on the world, adding to today’s footprint. We, as humans, should adapt to this new era we navigate in, which has implications not only on our physical wellbeing, but on our digital one as well.
3 /5 The installation is a collection of videos, images, poems and soundscape. The poem included is Ozymandias written by Percey Bysshe Shelley in 1818. This sonnet of solemn and dreamlike power constituted an important tool to set the tone of the project. The piece discusses the transience of power, and how nature will overcome humanity. It starts off with the description of a traveller from an antique land who finds a wrecked statue in the desert. Some experts say that Shelley was probably inspired by the Egyptian statue of Ramses the II, when writing the poem. The statue represents the decline of humanity: humans are seen as unkind rulers who have abused their power.
4 /5 The images files document Google softwares and are empirical when researching how far human presence has propagated, specifically through the implementation of digital technologies. More in detail, inside the folder are four other subfolders, respectively containing: the welcome text; a .PNG file with a poster of the Shelley sonnet; a folder containing an .MP3 file of the poem and an experimental song by Naomi Chan; the fourth folder contains some open-source screenshots of the Earth captured using Google softwares; lastly, the videos folder contains a time-lapse recorded using Google Earth and a video using Google Street View. Alongside this last one, is an intense sound as a background; two experimental videos; two videos overlaying the flag pattern, while the very last video represents the little Google Maps falling man. This last one conceptualises the fall of mankind facing nature. The statue of the destroyed Ramssei The II appears in one video, implicitly representing the fall of humanity.
5 /5 The project should be contemplated as a digital interactive experience, collecting different kinds of audiovisual presences. The actual format is based on interactivity, intertextuality and non-linearity. The viewers are also able to modify, delete or add to the already produced content. The subverted aesthetics of the computer desktop, served as the space for hosting this experience. Three different suggested routes are aimed at helping to navigate the content. Here the videos recording the different routes to explore the digital installation ::DIGITAL LANDSCAPE:: / ::DATA STRATIFICATION:: / ::HUMAN DECLINE:: / ::ALL ROUTES::
