Artificial light and the pollution it casts over our environment have become increasingly intrusive, none more so than screens. Everything in our lives, from entertainment to calendars, timetables to alarm clocks, calculators to emails, is all controlled by our phones. When we aren’t doing anything, when we aren’t stimulated, our first instinct is to reach for our phones. This is the new, more invasive form of light pollution. Not just in our environment, but inside our homes, following us wherever we go, at all times. A second sun of sorts, and the second sun never sets.
In this project, I employ wandering and lingering as methods to evoke a state of boredom. A state that is missed in this contemporary lifestyle. By removing external stimuli, I place myself alone with my thoughts and surroundings. This artificial screen that has taken over society has shifted our attention from merely existing in life to endless consuming. We get up, we consume, we travel, we consume, we go to work, we use the bathroom, we eat, we relax, we exist, we consume. The state of consumption has become the baseline for existence, in search of ever more stimulation.
This project seeks to return people to a space free from screens, scrolling and the quiet erosion of thought caused by constant stimulation. It is an invitation to be bored and escape the overwhelming pressure of endless productivity. A space that gives people's minds an opportunity to be free, to wander, to be curious and give the power back to our minds rather than to the algorithms that seek to shape it.
