Virtual Lands 2.0 is the second iteration of the Virtual Lands project that blurs the boundaries between photography and video games by blending the visual language and aesthetic of both mediums and questions the separation of virtual, physical, fact and fiction and the limits of realities.
The project consists of photo-manipulated landscape images that are created by combining a physical photographic process with computer-based digital image processing. The creative decisions and input of the artist and the computational software procedure are equally important in the creation of the imagery and the project’s images are the result of a human-machine cooperation.
The images depict traversable landscapes with routes intended for exploration and navigating the virtual lands. The images entice the viewer to reflect on their journey and imagine the paths they would take. The visual quality and aesthetic of the imagery is greatly influenced by photo-realistic video game graphics but attempt to complicate the viewer’s ability of identifying the place and origin of the image.
Virtual Lands 2.0 is part of a long-term exploration into the historical and contemporary relationships between photography and video games. The series consists in its entirety of 106 unique photographs, which are produced both as archival pigment transparencies in a large-scale LED light-boxes, as digital C-type prints on Kodak Endura Premier Metallic paper, a 105-page photobook and digital art on high-definition screens.
