48 Nowheres is a series of outputs
from the 3D environments that were created for World of Awe to describe
the Sunset/Sunrise, which is the desert terrain the traveler passes
through. These landscape renderings capture, at a distance, an emotion
similar to a memory, yet on closer inspection reveal their digital
composition. This is apparent especially by the horizon line where
terrain meets sky and around the shadows defined by the wireframe
that construct the 3D environments. Each Nowhere is a tribute to magnificent
loneliness in slightly different tempers, seeking quiet but intense
dramas.
What is the Sunset/Sunrise? The traveler describes a desert landscape
that is in a constant sunset or sunrise. As if time stopped right
at that short transitional periodat a fleeting moment of high
dramatic impact. Curiously, the traveler signs the letters to the
absent lover in the following manner:
"Yours forever,
Your sunset/sunrise forever yours,
Yours forever yours."
This signature suggests a blurring of identity between self, place
and time. Perhaps the result of extreme solitude.
The last seven renderings are in grayscale. They reference the
tradition of landscape photography and the romantic qualities of
the monochromatic representation. Again, at first glance they appear
natural but on closer inspection they reveal their pixeled data.
Going against the grain of the digital medium, which encourages
multiple copies, these images are produced as one-of-a-kind digital
prints superimposed by a hand drawing of tracking data left by visitors
to the World of Awe Traveler's Journal. Terrain7_6
is on view at the Whitney Museum during the 2002 Biennial.