Daily we pass through neighborhoods without taking the opportunity to stop and look. We know nothing of the people that populate these communities. We are passersby – in a car, riding the light rail, or on foot – traveling too quickly, witnessing nothing of our surroundings.
We have been taught boundaries. We have been taught were to go and where not to go. We draw maps to delineate countries, states, counties, cities, and even neighborhoods. But these maps represent our division…
Project Statement
We live in a technocentric society. Willingly we trade away stability, permanence, and the desire to investigate in favor of increased speed, miniaturization, and the easy, instant access to information. The transient nature of information has been mapped upon the tangible aspects of our lives.
At what point did the world decide that impermanence was better than permanence, that the degradation of our products, disintegration of our literature, dissipation of our history, or the deciduous nature of our art would become desirable, acceptable, reasonable?
Unacceptable!
As things begin to decay, they may create a visual appeal and a scientific interest; but the beauty of natural decay is organic. Its degradation is a creative process developing a new form while retaining aspects of its prior self. Digital decay is destructive. Data is lost, yet its loss is accepted. Should it be abhorred? Should it be tolerated? Is there a place where it should be desired?
Accordion Style book:
Liquid Emulsion on Watercolor paper, wooden frames, piano hinges, color inkjet
City Sleeper
10″ x 10″
Chromogenic Development Print
1996
Steven H Silberg 