I Saw You, Coming Back To Me
Andrew Carson | September 2012
I Saw You, Coming Back To Me is an exhibition of new works, questioning our relationship with online technologies: how we enter them, and the alternate lives we experience therein.
The work invites users to reflect on the data and memories they upload on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the online game Second Life, as a sort of shadow-self. The work explores the semblance of immortality and schisms that occurs with the use of these media; immortality not dependent on the continued presence of the physical self.
Incorporating elements of spiritual and religious beliefs, the work examines meditative and esoteric ritualistic practices, in a bid to create contemporary ceremonies with which to engage and re-connect with our cyber-selves. It is an investigation into the psychological effects inherent in the use of these sites; revolving around the dichotomy of potentially un-reconciled virtual and physical realities.
This work is from an ongoing series inspired by the Egyptian Book of the Dead, "I have hidden myself amongst you, oh imperishable stars". Intended as a guide for surviving the passage through the underworld, the title of the series is derived from the chapter on "not dying a second time", designed to give the deceased the tools to ensure their soul lives on through the dispersal of elements of the self amongst the cosmos.
There will also be a performance on Culture Night, Spetember 21st, in which the artist, using Second Life, will perform rituals from the book, thus giving his avatar a continued, partitioned, existence in a study of digital apotheosis.
Andrew Carson is a Dublin based artist, graduated from DIT in 2010. Recent exhibitions include Unknown Knowns (Draiocht, 2011), Hell's Microwave (Pallas Contemporary Projects, 2011), Jockeyism (Block T, 2011) and Sonic Vigil V (St. Finbarr's Church, Cork, 2010). This is his first solo exhibition.
Andrew Carson | September 2012
I Saw You, Coming Back To Me is an exhibition of new works, questioning our relationship with online technologies: how we enter them, and the alternate lives we experience therein.
The work invites users to reflect on the data and memories they upload on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the online game Second Life, as a sort of shadow-self. The work explores the semblance of immortality and schisms that occurs with the use of these media; immortality not dependent on the continued presence of the physical self.
Incorporating elements of spiritual and religious beliefs, the work examines meditative and esoteric ritualistic practices, in a bid to create contemporary ceremonies with which to engage and re-connect with our cyber-selves. It is an investigation into the psychological effects inherent in the use of these sites; revolving around the dichotomy of potentially un-reconciled virtual and physical realities.
This work is from an ongoing series inspired by the Egyptian Book of the Dead, "I have hidden myself amongst you, oh imperishable stars". Intended as a guide for surviving the passage through the underworld, the title of the series is derived from the chapter on "not dying a second time", designed to give the deceased the tools to ensure their soul lives on through the dispersal of elements of the self amongst the cosmos.
There will also be a performance on Culture Night, Spetember 21st, in which the artist, using Second Life, will perform rituals from the book, thus giving his avatar a continued, partitioned, existence in a study of digital apotheosis.
Andrew Carson is a Dublin based artist, graduated from DIT in 2010. Recent exhibitions include Unknown Knowns (Draiocht, 2011), Hell's Microwave (Pallas Contemporary Projects, 2011), Jockeyism (Block T, 2011) and Sonic Vigil V (St. Finbarr's Church, Cork, 2010). This is his first solo exhibition.
