Making A Way | Together
Artists: Diana Baumbach, Seamus Carey, Jonah Criswell, Andrew Elsten, Stacey Holloway, Melissa Huang & Drew Tetz, Chenyu Lin, and Eric Souther & Andrew Deutsch
Statement
I create tools and images that work to reveal the subliminal effects of media on our world-view. I look to develop new ways of seeing beyond the seductive qualities of an image in order to discover new possibilities of understanding the system in which we live and participate. I seek to actively break, hack, and process to explore beyond the seductive qualities of the image in order to understand the subliminal codes driving representation in the 21st Century. By deconstructing the image it gives me a way to humanize it and reveal unseen connections. I look for pathways to new understandings of our digital and non-digital existence.
Bio
Eric Souther is a new media artist who draws from a multiplicity of disciplines, including anthropology, linguistics, ritual, critical theory, and speculative illustration & design. He develops software instruments and codes that investigate technological & cultural ecologies. He looks for new ways of seeing beyond the seductive qualities of an image, and to find unseen connections that help us understand our digital and non-digital existence. His work takes many pathways, which include single-channel video, interactive installation, projection mapping, print, VR, and audiovisual performance.
The exponential growth of the human race, capitalism, and climate change reveals a system on the brink of failure. The ongoing global epidemic COVID-19 has tipped those scales into the red, putting millions at risk. This crisis has made it clear that America needs to rethink its economic practices and nationalize health care. COVID-19 has become the glitch in our system that requires us to step back and question the frameworks we have in place. To consider new pathways for future political, social, and economic realities.
The glitch was created by creating a virtual network for streaming video out and back into the same system. The glitches occur by throttling the networks bitrate and creating a feedback loop by taking the in back to the out. These glitches are similar to slow internets effects on streaming services like Netflix. Streaming services claim they provide you with 4k HD video, and the pixels within that resolution are present; however, they downsample your images based on your connection speed. I cannot help but make correlations to the promises of capitalism and the bootstrapped picturesque life of exponential growth and prosperity.
ericsouther.com
Instagram: @ericsouther
Facebook: facebook.com/eric.souther.5
How can people purchase your work if it’s for sale? souther@alfred.edu
