Homecoming

Homecoming reimagines Homer’s Odyssey. Not so much as a heroic epic, but as a quest for ‘home’ in a world driven by algorithms, screens and ecological insecurity. What does it mean to ‘come home’ when technology constantly connects us, but estranges us from ourselves and our surroundings at the same time?

The Anthropocene is an era in which climate, terrain and atmosphere have been changed irrevocably by human activity, and every landscape has become a cultural landscape. Given that we already shape nature, why would its depiction not be a construct? AI-generated imagery could well be the ultimate deformation of this man-made landscape.

Mark Dorf investigates the tension between experience and construction. Using photography, digital media and sculptures, he explores how people experience the digital, urban and architectural landscape and the natural world – and are part of these domains. In this cinematographic epic, he shows how algorithms and image generation tools rearrange the boundaries of our ecological, emotional and social reality. Live action footage morphs into 2D and 3D animation, internet clips are layered and layered, and connected by an ominous veil of sound.

Homecoming uses this hectic editing style and a fragmented visual language to burst the reassuring bubble of nostalgia. Did the ‘home’ that we long for ever really exist? Or was it always a construct – shaped, celebrated and shattered in the history of art, cinema and technology?

Mark Dorf’s Homecoming is a joint presentation with Nieuwe Instituut.

– Eva Langerak

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