Digital Places

This series of prints was created as part of the Stephens Residency during the summer of 2024.

When I received the invitation for the residency, the format and unifying theme of the Ebenezer Swamp initially made me uncertain about what I would create. I reached for my phone, Googled “Ebenezer Swamp”, and was presented with a series of snapshots and reviews of the preserve.

The Ebenezer Swamp is a remarkable place. It’s an essential part of our water supply, a home to an astounding amount of life and biodiversity, a site for scientific research, an education center, a communal green space for the local population, etc. Before visiting the physical space, I engaged with the curated digital space created about, around, and apart from swamp. This drove me to investigate the idea of digital placemaking, or the multidisciplinary practice that uses digital technology to create experiences and environments for people either in or on top of the world around them. Digital placemaking is largely focused on the interplay between the physical and digital worlds in public spaces and how these two worlds can impact each other.

Each print and the supporting media had to follow a set of rules:

1. The source material for these prints would either be captured with my phone or pulled from online sources (open source images, public records, government funded information sources, social media feeds, etc.).

2. Each print would have to incorporate sound or audio in some capacity.

3. Each print would start with a digital environment and would create a digital environment for the viewer to engage with at the end.

4. Part of the final piece, would always need to exist on the internet.