In Satiation

X. A. Li

Artwork Description:

In Satiation is a site-responsive installation materializing how personal and industrial protocols of extractive assessment process the world. It begins with patches of ground filmed across the American desert, seemingly mundane and unremarkable. Unlike the sweeping vistas we privilege in regarding nature, these arbitrary sites lack obvious appeal or purpose, though of course they teem with matter and life indifferent to humans' limited lens. Many initially appear as static images, though with time subtle shifts of light, wind, and insect motion become noticeable. With extended viewing these videos take on their own qualities of visual interest, but this emergence requires a recalibration of our intuitive attention towards stimuli and interest. The projected videos are progressively obstructed by smaller screens that enact a farcical manufacturing pipeline of imagined utility and meaning, mimicking economic systems transforming raw materials into discrete commodities. First, a super-resolution neural network 'enhances' roaming patches of the original footage. Second, a sign hanging upon approach continuously analyzes these 'enhanced' outputs to determine and advertise the most valuable use for the land pictured. There is a stark contrast between the seemingly bereft views of sand and rock, doctored beyond recognition by algorithmic processing, and the confident declarations of value proclaimed. An arbitrary slice of reality becomes a packaged spectacle made absurdly hyper-legible, marked by quotidian fencing further denoting the artwork itself as a constructed experience. Viewers become uncertain of where to stand and where to look, thus requiring an active choice unsettling habituated defaults.