Adam Dix — À propos — Slash Paris

The accompanying images that are presented to you here are from an ongoing body of work which sets out to investigate the associations between technology and our need and fascination with it. I have concentrated on the arena of telecommunications looking at its impact on society.

By examining futuristic past predictions of the 21st century and the subsequent representation of that imagined future, I intend to look at our reliance on consumer technology, highlighting the insecurity and vulnerability of man caused by our desire for aspirational, consumer products.

Using nostalgia for a science fiction future, and also the present abundance of consumer technology, the work represents a visual language that emulated optimism for a future vision: a creation of a world where the human race would live in a technological utopia. Obviously we know this not to be true, but the work sets out to look at and convey an almost absurd distorted view of a contemporary techno culture by morphing past dreams and present aspirations together.

It is this embodiment of a contradiction that presents itself within our understanding of today’s communication technology, which is where my interest lies. The contradiction I believe is, the conflict between the unification and physical detachment of a person’s engagement with communication technology. How can these two elements work together as well as oppose one another, simultaneously unifying or at least implying unification?

The paradox of a need to communicate while remaining physically isolated by the very object of connectivity has led my investigation into describing behavioural responses with regard to communication, how we relate or comprehend technology on a humanistic level. In doing so I have found other areas that are representative of galvanising people into a group response, that project a sense of ritual, coveting, sect and in extremes, fanaticism.