Virtual Botany Cyanotypes (2016-Present)

 

Taking their form from the well known collection of 'Cyanotypes of British Algae', produced by Anna Atkins (1799-1871) in the 19th Century, these works explore various types of plant life that live inside video games, and virtual reality environments.

Through performative and procedural explorations inside video games, as well as their file-structures, virtual plant life is identified and extracted, and then transposed to positive exposure film. The images of virtual plants, grasses, shrubs, trees and weeds are then exposed through real sunlight onto photosensitive paper, which is prepared by hand using the original 19th Century process.

The result is a series of works that allow virtual imagery to merge with real-world physical materiality. The surfaces of these images records both jpeg artifacts, as well as blemishes and scars which result from the handmade production process.

Each work is unique as the transparency film used in the exposure process is destroyed after the work is complete.