Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2014
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
To express the dramaticism of the themes in my work, I have written the following document in a pseudo-satirical voice, expressing both my interest in science fiction and my own eagerness to accept the profoundness of the Internet’s connectivity in my life. The sensational nature of the writing is both prophetic and personal, conflating manticism with art making. Due to the interlacing of the web’s influence with our individual lives, we must pay tribute to its power and guidance through endorsements of search engines and online marketplaces that have built a new world of convenience. This world of convenience is based on the accessibility of information and commerce, where online s
Language
English (en)
Program Director
Patricia Olynyk
Program Director's Department
Graduate School of Art
Committee Member
Kelly Shindler
Committee Member
Kelly Shindler
Committee Member
Kelly Shindler
Recommended Citation
Thompson, Christopher J., "Exodus HD" (2014). Graduate School of Art Theses. ETD 8. https://doi.org/10.7936/K7TB14TX.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/samfox_art_etds/8
Artist's Statement
The apocalyptic fear and optimism that enveloped the 1990s at the height of the Y2k bug scare coursed throughout both marginal and mainstream culture, inducing a nihilistic optimism into the vein of the public conscious. The popularization and growing influence of the Internet by the end of the century became apparent through the fear of the Y2K bug, alarming the first generation of mainstream users. Throughout the marginal corners of popular culture the anticipation of the new millennium was met with an embracement of a visionary apocalypse, providing a chance to celebrate the last days of the 20th century, burn everything down, and start over.
My utilization of online culture and 90s nostalgia in video and installation is based in the eternal search for generational originality in the era of Instagram. The equalization of information that the Internet promotes, results in a rupture of cultural distinction between highbrow and lowbrow, giving form to nobrow as a synthesis of the two. My application of amateur 3D animation references the transitional period of web 1.0 to web 2.0 during the late 90s to early 2000s in which the popularization of the web and design software allowed amateurism to become semi-professional. My treatment of nobrow aesthetics is employed through my use of lowbrow design and its fruition through sophisticated software. Juxtaposing the heroic traditions of Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Tarkovsky, with the low-resolution imagery of ripped You Tube videos, MOV files, and JPEGs, I elevate online content to the status of cinema.
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7TB14TX
The luminosity of the screens (or projections) in my installations melt into the “real” and a rematerialization occurs from virtual to physical realm. The conflation of the screen through the luminescence of both the virtual and physical creates punctures between these realms, blurring their distinctions. In my installations everything is illuminated, the spaces I work within act as the desktop display of a monitor, occupied by videos, images, screensavers, and icons. The objects scattered throughout the space are files spread across the screen. Icons of jpeg files rematerialize as discrete art objects, offering only a snapshot of the event they were intending to document.
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7TB14TX