DIGITAL APOCALYPSE
My Bachelor's thesis
My thesis aims to manipulate reality, offering a future scenario both science fiction and creepy about the far too advanced evolution of technology. The topic of the paper answers the question 'What would happen if an apocalypse happened? ". Drawn and inspired by the Apocalypse, I want to portray a new interpretation of the apocalypse as seen through my artistic perspective. This is depicted in a digital context, where the excessive power of technology and social media platforms is destroying people's souls and everything around them. The visual representation for this end of the world that viewers will witness, will be made possible through the visual style of glitch art. In glitch art there are so many fascinating techniques that can be used, to excellently match the moods that are conveyed. When humans no longer master technology, and it takes hold of them, then this end of the world will be triggered. The world and people will warp and distort, and the reality we know today will be disintegrated by digitization.
1. Connection Started
The first image is called "Connection Started" and depicts the beginning of the digital apocalypse. The phone is depicted as a portal, and contains an eye from which an electric character emerges, swooping with its "tentacles" at people's apartments. This character controls people and locks them into the "apartments of various social networks", namely Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram and Snapchat. By letting the excessive influence of technology and social media swoop down on their souls, lives and minds, they become prisoners of the social networks they frequent most often. That's why the windows are coloured differently, in the colours of the social media logos. This apocalypse is not only affecting people, but also the environment: colour tones are changing and skies and blocks are distorted.
2. Hunger
The second work is called " Hunger ", and captures technology embodied as an evil entity, sitting at the table and preparing to consume the emotions of people's souls. In the plate on the table are four people with emoticons on their heads, to highlight the emotions they have when the apocalypse is triggered. I've made a block of flats on the table that looks like a salt shaker to convey the idea that after being taken over and isolated by social media, people are poured out of the flats onto the plate, where technology is about to devour their emotions.
3. The Human Control
The third photograph is called "The Human Control" and shows how technology is sitting at the desk, this time and taking over the human brain. The picture illustrates an unusual situation, as we are used to see people sitting at their computers and not the other way around. In this image, technology controls the "human computer" (brain). Reaching the point where the brain cannot process so much false information and manipulation found on social media and the internet in general, it starts to vomit binary code. The work is a symbol of the manipulation found in the digital environment, which changes and affects people's behaviour and brains.
4. Burden
The second to last photograph in the series is entitled 'Burden' and presents the aftermath of 'Human Control'. Once technology has taken over the human brain, it holds the human captive for eternity, destroying him both physically and mentally. The television and the trap on the character's head are symbols of suffocation and isolation, and they also represent the burden as a result of technological control. The character has a high level of degradation, indicating the torturous moments he has gone through in "Human Control". We also notice a tattooed eye on the character's chest, a sign that illustrates that the man is "marked" to remain without privacy and to be watched in his daily life. The character's head and facial expression were achieved by combining two models I photographed in the studio, and using textures of stone, rust, earth and sand, I achieved the human's degraded state.
5. Extermination
The last artwork of the series is called "Extermination" and it depicts the moment of total destruction of my artistic universe. Technology, which is represented in an imposing posture, has acquired the necessary power to deform and decompose the world through its digital errors. The character of this work is the dominant figure of the photograph, a symbol of irreversible actions and devastating consequences. The eye-like energy source in the television was made by photographing a plasma globe, and combining several textures of fire and electricity with it.
