Ebenezer Swamp: Personal Area

A Personal Area Network (PAN) is the small network that connects devices within a user's close proximity. For example, how your phone connects to other technology with bluetooth. The purpose of this type of network was to eliminate the need for wires in your immediate vicinity and increase mobility. These networks have allowed an ever increasing amount of connections between ourselves, the devices at our immediate disposal, and how we exist in our environments. Personally, this expansion often comes at the expense of my attention, awareness, and mindfulness.  This print is an attempt to reconcile the tension between the fleeting nature of this ecosystem and the desire to digitally document and preserve as much information or moments that my devices will allow. 

This print started with a 360 degree panorama created using a HDRI camera app on my phone. I was drawn to this type of panorama because photos generated aren’t strictly meant for viewing. High Dynamic Range Images take multiple photographs with varying amounts of lighting information and composite them into one image. These types of files are commonly used in image-based lighting for 3D models. These images try to generate the presence of an environment into a static image. The results created by this particular app were pictures with hyper-realistic details and textures yet multiple errors in how the images were joined at the periphery.

Along with the panoramas, I combined multiple audio samples I captured with my phone from different times of day and excursions into a single audio piece.  You can hear the sound of my heart beat, cicadas, the murmuring of my colleagues, various birds and insects responding to the sun setting, and conversations with my kids. The data of the audio track was translated into a visual format and serves as the abstract background detail of the final print. While the audio captured allowed me to create a new digital space for visual forms, it had drawbacks. Due to the nature of my phone recorder, most audio had to be captured with a specific direction and distance. The result was a high level of clarity of sounds in my personal area that greatly diminished outside of my close proximity. Both the audio and imagery created for this piece excel in the immediate but falter over distance. This compulsion to capture as much as possible is ultimately incapable of providing a full picture, both of my surroundings and the great ecosystem around me.