Podcast
Rumpus Events
Rumpus Book ClubDaniel Everett and Internet Isolation
Photographer Daniel Everett has many ways of looking at the sterile technology that isolates us even as it interconnects us. A commentary primarily on computers and the Internet, Everett’s metaphorical subjects also include an elevator that endlessly rises (“Ascension”) and an observation tower (“Omniscience Beta”), among others. The few images that do contain people, in a series called “Proximity,” come as much-need relief from the sad, if ironically entertaining, well-lit spaces of his other works. One of his best pieces is not a photograph at all, but a series of screen-shots, below, called “Conversations with a Computer.” As Everett describes it:
“Contained within the operating system of Mac computers is a rudimentary electronic psychotherapist program. Meant to simulate a Rogerian therapist, it engages the participant in a cyclical conversation by taking his or her statements and roughly reconfiguring them into questions. I met with this program three times a week for a month in order to discuss my fear that I was disappearing completely. These are three stills from our conversations.” (Via BeautifulDecay)
And Everett’s “Goals” (detail):
August 15th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I love this. This rocks. It is because of my childhood that I think this rocks. It is because I’m afraid of living and more afraid of disappearing and little afraid you might disappear too, that this rocks.
August 15th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I also really love the concept behind his piece, Building a more meaningful existence –
“For this project I used a graphics editor built into an early arcade game to convert spam emails I had recieved into a virtual landscape. By reconfiguring the graphics editor interface to accept keystrokes as input, I was able to build these landscapes solely by transcribing spam messages and compiling them. For this piece I specifically chose spam messages that promised me a more meaningful life, increased happiness, and a greater sense of self-worth.”