D is for Distance
A ship travels. I follow its path across the open ocean through a little window in a screen. Every minute, it updates a new image. A journey that goes to where it never arrives, and comes from where it never parted. The real sea, in real time. Distance is distorted, compressed and negated. The little window makes me a promise of immediacy, omnipresence, control. But the promise is always inconsistent, never fulfilled.
This work is questioning the inconsistency of technology’s promise of omnipresence and connection. The video has been constructed from webcam images, taking one day of the journey of a ship. The soundtrack has been created from sounds clips found online. This piece was initially created for the project OXHOUSE, created by Clare Adams. OXHOUSE was an online alphabet made for and about the digital native.
A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already exist when they are born, and hence has or will grow up with digital technology such as the internet, mobile phones, social networking sites etc. It showcased works from 26 diverse artists from all over the world in a variety of mediums from performance to illustration, who have responded to the following questions: What are and will be the implications of the digital world on our digital natives? What gift would you give to the digital native about to be born into our digital world?
Each artist proposed a piece of work for a letter of the alphabet, chose a word for this letter and made a piece of work in response with a message or definition for the digital native. OXHOUSE marks a time in history where subsequent generations born will not remember life before the digital world. Curated by Justin Allen and supported by The Arts Council of England.