My project, ‘Biophilia in the technological age’ is about our disconnection from nature,
driven by technology and how this manifests in the body. It seems our bodies have swung
into a new way of being, that feels alien from the environment. The experience of the body
has changed from being at one with nature- connected to the chaos and risk of the natural
world-to experiencing a world of sterility and softness. In my research I was interested in
how technology deadens the senses, the physical implications of excessive technology, for
example poor vision and muscle weakness. I made speculative works, imagining technology as a physical barrier to our connection with nature. A kind of ‘technological film’ over the body, a seal that restricts our engagement with the natural world. To make this ‘film over the body’ I experimented using glitches, cropping ,heavy editing and saturation in my video work I also experimented with wax, honey ,plastic, blurring effects and clear jelly as I imagined this ‘film’ to be plasticky and elastic, like a strange digital recreation of the skin.
During my project I was very interested in technologies relationship to the body and nature
more broadly, how technology and A.I attempts to imitate or recreate life, scanning it into
an untouchable digital realm. The use of technology in medicine also intrigued me and led
me to think about the body in sterile environments. I wanted to evoke the body and present
it as alien from its environment, somehow cut-off. For my final piece I wanted to display the experience of the bodies alienation, the conflict between being part of the natural world but also the sterile technological era.
