Elinor O’Donovan

The Internet of Things
Edinburgh College of Art, UK
2019

The Internet of Things explores aspects of internet culture including memes, viral phenomena, and stock photo aesthetics.

Throughout this body of work, I have been interested in translating digital images into physical space. How do you retain a sense of digital-ness when bringing flat pixels into the real lumpy world?

Here, I have brought my digital collages into an exhibition space. Although they are flat, they are layered - and in the translation of these digital images to physical works, they gain the kind of depth and dimensionality which can only be mimicked on a screen.

These collages represent a reality constructed by the internet. The images I remix are taken from Google, and some images are privileged by being top search-results. To give an example; a stock photo of an apple that I download is just one variation of what an apple may look like, but it is given authority in saying “this is what an apple is” by being a top search result on Google.

In this way, I think the internet can shape what we know of the world.


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