PHOTOGRAPHS

THE STAGE, 2002-2003

As we desperately try to make something real of the day, how does one go about capturing real experience in a reified world? What goes on in a place where peoples’ interactions are a direct result of their mass-made environments? Abandoned landscapes that were created for people to function inside of, take on lives of their own when the occupants of yesterday no longer have a need for interaction. The dichotomy between using models and real spaces allows these places to become documents for peoples’ states of mind as well as documents to a new world, not far from the world we presently occupy. (The idea of "really living" has taken the form of feature length films, video games, and virtual-reality cohorts.)The action is unseen but present; the objects have human qualities, carefully interacting with one another. Night is equivalent to day. Regimented gardening schemes are documented. However, when the new breed finally decides to leave their estranged dwellings, people begin to roam. Underpasses and parking lots become the new public play spaces and neighborhood meeting grounds. New secular communities are formed. People begin to feel the desire to interact on a person-to-person level - in whatever fragmented reality that they are given.
The population starts to build apostruptures around these areas to keep their cities and towns safe from rising sea levels, witnessed in the rivulets of water leaking and collecting in some of the photographs. The new breed begins to formulate a new culture, begun by the missionaries of the apostrupture. They use the space of the Internet to provide information on building the wall and working together – something long forgotten. They form a new global calendar, new maps for getting around, new wearable houses and modes for succeeding in the world. -MM