Give Them Distance

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BACKGROUND "Give Them Distance" is a video and sculptural installation that explores how the materiality of photomedia and images of space are entangled. The project sits within the field of contemporary art and is part of a discourse around the visual culture of the universe. Can an artwork create an aesthetic experience that conjures the paradoxical coexistence of entropy and infinity? How do perceptions and imaginations of space change with developments of visual culture? CONTRIBUTION Created from hundreds of slides discarded by a university Earth and Planetary Science department, the looped video animates a journey from Earth, through the solar system and space, returning to our planet via fallen meteorites. The accompanying audio is the degraded sound from a super-8 film, Walt Disney's 1979 sci-fi "The Black Hole". Juxtaposed with the video is a mirrored infinity box sculpture, which becomes activated when a viewer peers into it, reflecting the exterior space in infinite form and placing the viewer and space in a sense of infinity. By employing the conditions of entropy and infinity through the materials, editing, and construction techniques, the project opens up considerations of how aesthetic experiences of space can point to the challenges of comprehending the cosmos. SIGNIFICANCE "Give Them Distance" was selected for FORMAT17 HABITAT, an international photography festival in Derby, England. The FORMAT jury was made up of notable gatekeepers in photography, including creative director and artist Erik Kessels and Editorial Director of British Journal of Photography, Simon Bainbridge. Additionally, the project was presented at Athens Digital Art Festival 2017, #Postfuture, exhibited at both the Athens Airport and at the main festival venue in the historic centre of Athens. In Melbourne, the project was exhibited at c3 Contemporary Art Space in 2017(audience of 2,667). All of the presentations of the work came out of juried processes.