The relationship between the information we retain and its imagery we mentally re-envision and reassemble, helps us conceptualize imperceptible events such as the slow moving catastrophe of climate change. Recalling Robert Jay Lifton’s concept of fragmentary awareness, we form surreal sequences from these visual thoughts in order to create our own narratives of the real events that are difficult to comprehend.
In this video, natural imagery unfolds into a surreal cycle of destruction, death, and rebirth. The fragmented footage, taken from three coastlines in the United States, is edited into new forms – accentuating nature’s close interplay with itself and us. The soundtrack, taken from the ambient sound of the source footage, is manipulated and layered with synth drones – reinforcing the intense and uncanny relationship between memory and reality. By dramatizing these natural moments a light is cast on our environmental impact and the overall power, horror, and beauty of nature itself.
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.
