In the realm of the material, a computer image is capable of nearly seamless collage.Its lack of inherent "surface", its existence as first and foremost a "description" of a picture, makes this so.At the same time, its ability to gather images from such an array of sources - photography, drawing, diagrammatic rendering, video, broadcast television - provides an opportunity to create highly charged composite images with multiple and even contradictory references to science, art, reportage, media.It is significant that these sources are themselves inherently collage-like.
Specifically, I am interested in the general phenomenon of "modeling", especially in the quasi-scientific variety which is best represented in the nightly television weather report.The convention of the satellite or geographic map that is presided over by a human guide, is a theater both epic and egomaniacal.I am interested in the evolving look and ideology of computer "interface", that is, the graphic appearance of the computer screen that links the general user with the sometimes complex functionality of a computer program or network, demonstrating to us mere humans that something is, in fact, going on.I am fascinated with linking the broad range of contemporary computer graphic interface conventions (icons, floating palettes, menu bars) with the older, pre-computer conventions of mechanical hand-drawing (graph-paper) and camera based imaging (photography and video).I think of this as a way to visualize something of the conflict that exists between these competing informational vehicles and the way we think of them.I use imagery of global weather and global mapping to link the two, as it represents the largest scale material referencing that we are generally familiar with.