Julia Stalnaker

Artifact

Everything in the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born. But before prehistory there was the prehistory of prehistory and there was the never and there was the yes. It was ever so. I do not know why, but I do know that the universe never began.

The Hour of the Star

Unable to go outside, I gaze out the window. Thick, heavy smoke stares back at me. It’s September 2020 and the once blue sky is replaced by an orange martian atmosphere. The forest behind my house is on fire, and all I can do is wait to see if my family needs to evacuate; forests all over the state are on fire and every day I hear of a new landmark up in flames.

This isn’t my first time living through a climate change phenomenon and it won’t be my last. Climate change has produced many uncanny environments with their own sort of “artifacts” or “glitches.” In Oregon we’re seeing longer wildfire seasons as well as changing precipitation patterns. Slow degradation and unraveling are a new normal.

Projected single channel video showcases new environments with their own glitches. Gradual weakening of natural influence over the environment in favor of technological influence mirrors the way human activity has contributed to climate change. An AI algorithm uses source video of smoke to create photorealistic landscapes. Realistic as they are, however, the new environments are inherently unnatural. Their nature can reveal itself in the form of pixelated patterns, objects appearing out of nowhere, or other distortions.