The human race relies on reason and intellectual intuition to better society. One might think that this creates order, peace, and security, but the result has been quite the opposite. In 1887, Photographer, Eadweard Muybridge, documented motion for the first time by capturing the movement of the horse. His photographs challenged the conceivable truth by exposing how horses truly run. In one hundred and fifty years, Muybridge may have thought that the advancement of technology would have led society to a new vision of truth. However, today, he might be quite saddened to discover that in many ways society is using technology to avoid and or warp the truth. The ease of information and ever-increasing accessibility to images and text are creating a web of shallow intelligence. In this, there are voids where people are neglecting to truly question perceptions, challenge notions, debate relevance, critique wrongs and explore new ideas. The very idea of truth is being perverted.
In this digital age, there is an ironic correlation between the surge of information and the instability of our world. With the great ease of shared information, it is not ridiculous to think that mankind would be overcoming issues of war, poverty, equality, and environmental problems. Instead, new media has made the way we share ideas and truths as unstable as a supernova. Our world is suffering, and ignorance is to blame.
Within this work, the unbroken light bulbs serve as symbols for understanding. They remain unlit to serve as commentary on unexplored ideas and truths that exist within our expansive universe. The broken glass represents the overwhelming misguided information that floods the media, and ultimately leads to the instability and the destruction of the material world. The light in the center of the installation represents the energy of truth.
*The background music for this installation is from the opera “The Photographer” by Philip Glass that is based on the how Eadweard Muybridge was acquitted from murder of his mistress, as the truth at the time put the blame on the women who entered into a relationship with a married man.
