In this abstract environmental landscape, space and time are continuously being reshaped. As with dreams and memories, the imagery lies within the boundary of the familiar and the surreal. The layered and distorted textures taken from across the United States (New Mexico and Illinois) reveal that nature’s connections are closer and greater than they appear. The soundtrack, edited from the source footage, further dramatizes this cycle of transformation. We are transported into a place of otherness where the transitory can also, paradoxically, seem enduring.
Mikey Peterson is a Chicago-based video/audio artist. His imagery, influenced by pre-CGI science fiction films, arthouse horror, experimental cinema, and sound collage, aims to disturb the viewer’s self-perception and sense of place. Footage is taken out of its original natural context and manipulated to relay other truths about the world that it is from - unveiling themes of memory, environmental preservation, evolution, disorientation, and fear. His work has shown in festivals, galleries and museums including NYC’s Museum of the Moving Image; Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography; the Chicago Cultural Center; the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum; Rome’s MAXXI Museum; South Korea’s CICA Museum, Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum; SIGGRAPH Conference, Lucca Film Festival, London’s Visions in the Nunnery, CURRENTS New Media, Paris’ STREETVIDEOART, Athen’s Digital Arts Festival, NYC’s Ende Tymes Festival, NYC’s Under The Subway Video Art Night, and NYC’s VAEFF festival at Tribeca Cinemas. Peterson teaches courses at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Snow City Arts.
