Family Portraits

The screens of the connectible devices we use are the only way we can have access to this parallel man-made universe, the Internet. Our lives have changed, from the simplest task to the way we perceive the world around us. Those devices guide us trough the real world, they answer our questions, they advice us and keep us company day and night. We look at them, touch them and talk to them in almost an intimate way.

Acknowledging these facts made me look at these devices from a different perspective. In this series I create family portraits of devices, reversing the subject/object relation. In this casual scenery of our everyday life, our comfort zones this multitude of glowing immersive gates, like an opposite of black holes, promise limitless possibilities. Information, entertainment, human connection and much more, are available anywhere and anytime, breaking the physical bond with the reality that surrounds us.

 Never before had communication been so easy. Social networks and countless applications are created to serve our constant need for human connection but is there any chance that we have achieved the opposite?

Having for the first time in history such an easy and direct access to a huge and constantly increasing volume of information has made us wiser or are we just creating a detailed and multidimensional mirror of ourselves where we constantly seek our reflection as a confirmation of our existence?  Or do these ‘’extensions of our hands’’ have actually replaced our best friends, our family or even our lovers?

Numeric Love

Although Family Portraits started as a photography series it soon evolved into a Virtual Reality tour too.

The main idea of this VR tour was to create a house interior  that is a common  experience for most of us, but make the visitor feel as an intruder in somebody else’s house. By depriving the familiar feeling one perceives the rather usual scenery as extraordinary, letting him evaluate the situation he is into with a fresh perspective.

Inside this virtual installation photography is the building block of an experience. Being surrounded by a photograph that looks nearly as real as reality poses even more questions about what photography is and where that leads us.

Furthermore the screens inside the virtual tour are navigable also. Just by looking at them the viewer is transferred inside them, experiencing environments that exist only digitally. Immerged into videos and surrounded by sounds the real and the virtual come closer, making it difficult to rely on your senses.

Installation Views