Process: New Terrain

The third phase of the work, New Terrains, is what you move onto after passing through the veil. After moving from unaware or uneasy about virtual space in Public from Nothing, to processing enough of a sense of self and self seen in loss in A Vision, New Terrain is like a series of meditative spaces in which to come to terms with the inevitable absurdity of virtual space in our lives.



Conceptualizing this section of the work, I struggled with exactly what I wanted to 'say' about virtual space in the end. Was I against it, seeking to give people some hope of escape? Was I choosing to completely embrace it, calling it a point beyond physical space's limits? In the end, I chose neither, and really, I chose not to choose. As Bartleby the Scrivener's mantra, make a grand pronouncement? I'd prefer not to. Ultimately I think exploration like this isn't about 'getting' somewhere, or coming to a specific new way of seeing the world. The work is both deeply personal at times, and broadly related at others, and I think those experiencing it will come away with a different perspective of their own.



After watching the documentary Hypernormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016) I became more comfortable with the idea of not landing anywhere in particular. One of the defining aspects of our age is confusion, at how complex systems have become, and how nuanced and diversified political belief is, at how out of our control our technological systems are. We are not in an age of easy answers, and part of our 'age of loss' is a loss of easy meaning. You can't predict what people will derive from what they see because contexts are too striated to account for an easy audience response. So it was more important to me to create a process that an audience can go through and perhaps be changed.



That vision is ultimately what informed Age of Loss, and New Terrains is the end of that journey. The destinations are striated as well, with numerous experiences to seek out. The framing within the website was important to me; I wanted to create a sense of renewed vision to see virtual space for what it is, after contemplation of the self in A Vision. The tiles appear first to the viewer as finite spaces, regardless of how infinite or large they may feel once inside them; the webpage starts with a top down view of each space before you ‘enter’ and are surrounded by it. Having passed through the veil and gained appreciation for your physical self in space, you can see virtual space for what it is and partake in it on your terms.



As far as a deliberation on cyberspace, of virtualization, I'm not concerned with lionizing it or vilifying it. As with many of the absurd things about life, it simply is. What the work is really about is highlighting its 'is'-ness. In times past, it was easier to imagine the theoreticality of computer spaces. We needed skeuomorphism, for instance, to try and tie computer environments to something we understood because it was too abstract. A combination of factors, the ubiquity of virtual spaces—especially as they become our primary spaces during the pandemic—have highlighted the falseness of the binary between physical space and cyberspace. This is a kind of loss of spatiality, but it's also a kind of gain, which is what Age of Loss is concerned with.



Age of Loss means to present a view of loss that is not wholly conceptualized as ‘negative’. Learning to look upon loss straight on and acknowledge its inevitable presence is important at a time when we are collectively grappling with the effects of late capitalism and environmental flux. 



In an Age of Loss, we're offered New Terrains, if we chose to see them. It is all the more important that they will not all be wholly good. Sometimes they will be strange spaces of alienation, and sometimes spaces of deep healing and meditation. If we take the time to see them for what they are, we can find some way to work past their alienation and see clearly where we are, in physical or virtual space.