Man-made mountains are nothing but streams is a multimedia video installation exploring the intersection between nature and technology. A big part of our nature is intertwined with technology, but it also seems we are recreating that nature with our technology. We prefer a screen with a crackling fire of a real fire. Sunbathing under a lamp, whale sounds to help us fall asleep and flatscreens as windows to have a nice view from the office, constantly reminding us of the beautiful nature we are having trouble to connect to.
Perceiving nature through technology gives us a complete new perspective on nature, with detail and movements we have never been able to register with our own eyes, no matter how many times we have seen nature. In Man-Made mountains are nothing but streams you will observe these details of nature through our greatest companion in daily life, our smartphones, normally designed to excite us, but in this installation to calm us down.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this moment of peace on this grass-island full of nature. Guided by the short story called ‘Man-made mountains are nothing but streams’, A collaboration between nature and technology.
Casper de Jong, 2020, the Netherlands.
Relation to the open call:
I was surprised about this open-Call because I was working on ‘Man-Made mountains are nothing but streams’. I read the first sentences and it perfectly fits with the work I am currently developing. The intersection between synthetic and natural and our perception of those two. How synthetic nature can even help us relax and feel like we are in nature and how we are using this fact to cope in urban life. Additionally, the question of what humans see as nature. If technology is a part of our nature, so are Smartphones. Do we acknowledge technology becoming part of our nature, when do we acknowledge technology becoming part of our nature and when do we abandon certain technology, it being no part of our nature no more.
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