I met a traveller from an artificial land

2019     digital video, inkjet screenshots, orange tape

Created for dogmilk presents NOTOPIA for Plymouth Art Weekender 2019

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The images you see were [stolen] from virtual voyages; explorations of some of the world’s various Plymouths. From Massachusetts to Michigan, the United Kingdom to Monsterrat, Nova Scotia to Trinidad & Tobago. The legacy of colonialism groans on.

… And what is that written between the clouds? What name was erased? Don’t look for too long. Loitering is not permitted here. The body you inhabit is only temporary, you understand? Your tripod is unstable. The connection is faulty.

When Tisquantum, the Native American who acted as mediator, was freed from enslavement he returned to the land he once knew to find it desolate - everyone there lay dead, bodies ravaged by smallpox brought over by the British. This was 1622.

Artificial intelligence understands reality by segmenting what it sees into discrete categories (sky // land // building // sea) and hallucinates to fill in the gaps. Hazy? Sure. But when faced with this legacy, what do you see?

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