Mountains
看山是山，看山不是山，看山还是山
青原行思《三重境界》
Through glitching the desktop image, this project explores the sublime of technology in relation to the idea of Zen in Zen Buddhism. This is my honours project where I adopt the quote that uses mountain as a metaphor to represent the understanding to the essence of the world. In which one has to deconstruct the imagery to understand its logic.
Exegesis
This research project, “Mountain”, is a practice-led research that uses diffractive reading to seek similarities, enhancements and connections between postmodernism, post-humanism, internet technology and Zen. This theoretical context was used to examine the relationship between users and machines, especially users’ perception and consciousness towards the hyper-reality that constitutes by internet technologies. The idea of practice led research is to generate knowledge through reflections while creating artworks. In my practice, my artworks are based on my exploration of computer systems, which I personally experience through the making of my artworks. My theoretical framework was built on each reflection I have during practice led research. Wallpaper and codes were the main media of my work. Glitch, translation, and coding were used as the methods in this research project.
Deconstruction
Mountain started as a work that uses glitching techniques to deconstruct desktop image, and finished with a site specific installation that transforms a computer lab into a full-on installation. Through inserting Ascii Drawing of Buddha into the source code of desktop image, this work explores the internal structure of computer imaging and reveal the truth of technology in a destructive way. This destruction can be interpreted with Zen Buddhism philosophy, which requires deconstructing the superficial image to discover the truth of things.
“Mountains – trailer” Video (Mao 2019)
“Happy Coincidence” Glitched Image (Mao 2019)
“Rainbow Displaced” Glitched Image (Mao 2019)
“Decomposed” Glitched Image (Mao 2019)
“Displacement” Glitched Image (Mao 2019)
“Abstraction” Glitched Image (Mao 2019)
Mountains: The Final Exhibition
The final exhibition of The Mountains took place inside a computer lab, which includes 3 major pieces of work and several small pieces shown inside the video. Each computer in the lab displayed my glitching process of the wallpaper. Faced with the computer lab entrance are result images, and the other side was me inserting buddha figures into the source code. On the big screen was a performance that I glitched the image live. At the bottom of the performance was a glitched soundtrack that played with the progression of a video game. All the graphic in this video game was produced by glitching. The most important part of this exhibition was the window projection that faced the front road that led to the entrance of this exhibition. This projection was intensionally made into a shrine according to the shape of the window.
“The Final Exhibition” Video (Mao 2019)
“Back of Computer Installation” Installation (Mao 2019)
“Front of Computer Installation” Installation (Mao 2019)
“Outside Window Projection” Installation (Mao 2019)
Public Window Projection
Dual track video that illustrates the creation process of my work. This video was projected facing the entrance of the show onto a fabric hanging inside the window. The Buddha Ascii Drawing was aligned to window frame to create a sense of Shrine. The glitched image was projected to the adjacent window. This work is an excellent example of my ability to work with public spaces and sites.
“Outside Window Projection” Installation (Mao 2019)
“Outside Window Projection” Installation (Mao 2019)
“Interactive Glitched Sound Track” Installation (Mao 2019)
Angelo Mao 