Note that this post is in past tense since I've already completed this project. Instead of awkwardly writing in present tense, I'm just going to describe what my initial ideas were, and expand on how things really went down in my artist statement.
For this project, I knew from the start that I wanted to talk about how exhausting it is to engage with the modern day internet. We live in an attention economy, and everything from news outlets to entertainment companies are constantly battling for our attention. Clickbait, misinformation, and disinformation run rampant in today's culture, and we're constantly herded into various echo chambers where it can be increasingly difficult to know how well the rest of society aligns or doesn't align with your values. I wanted to highlight this constant wall of information and noise in my project as best I could.
To do this, I did always plan to be a focal point in my display. I planned to sit in the foreground while projecting the loudness of the internet behind me through images and clips pulled from various corners of the internet. Surprisingly, I stayed fairly true to this vision, though the details varied as my plan further developed. One idea I had that didn't make it to the final display, for example, was using masks to add more elements to my shadow on the wall than there should be. However, that got scrapped due to lack of ideas on what exactly to add to my shadow.
All in all, I wanted my piece to ooze with exhaustion. It's a bit bleak, but I wanted to express what's been on my mind for quite some time, and this seemed like an opportune time and place to do it.
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