Artist statement: My work examines the social, material and psychological conditions specific to the rise of ubiquitous computing and the integration of everyday life into vast and powerful technological networks.
‘Dirt genius’ and other works from the series Scarecrows extends an ongoing exploration of the tenuous boundaries between real and virtual worlds by representing objects and subjects in such a way that distinctions between them start to dissolve.
‘Dirt genius’ gestures toward a lost materiality brought about by the touch screen interface, conveyed by the moving finger. The work engages notions of the painterly mark via post-photographic means and posits that, rather than serving people at a benign, functional level, the increasingly anthropomorphic nature of technological objects brings into question assumed notions of human subjectivity.
Chromogenic prints are printed on paper that has at least three emulsion layers containing invisible dyes and silver salts. Each emulsion layer is sensitive to a different primary colour of light (red, green or blue). The development process converts the hidden dyes to visible colour depending on the amount of light it was exposed to. This type of paper is commonly used to print from colour negatives or digital files to produce a full-colour image. It can also be used to print black-and-white images, giving softer grain and less contrast than gelatin silver prints. Commonly known as c-type prints, chromogenic processing was developed in the 1940s and widely used for colour printing, including for domestic snapshots. While recent years have seen this process accompanied by ink-jet and digital printing technologies, chromogenic printing still remains in use to this day.
