wanted there to be an interplay between the video projection which is a virtual media and the physical sculptures. They both undermine each other and upset each other. But really as the video is projected and distorted on the surface of the physical sculptures another image is created.
W: What are the sculptures made of?
Naomi Ellis: The sculptures are made out of mesh, plaster and white paint. W: So the sculptures were made in traditional ways without involving any machines in the process but then a result of technology was projected onto it?
Naomi Ellis: Yes, I suppose so. I was also looking at virtual renderings. The videos are actually screen-recordings of me scrolling through different landscapes on Google Earth. I was quite interested in virtual reproduction of landscapes. I was looking at things like Second Life, which is a virtual world where people create avatars and can be teleported to different locations, sometimes quite surreal. With the Internet you can kind of go anywhere, there doesn’t appear to be much of an actual limit. I looked at that as research, at this idea of people creating fantasies in the screen. In Second Life you can actually buy certain
things such as actual virtual land. With real money. I also looked at buying bits of virtually rendered landscapes off 3D model shops. These virtual objects have a particular aesthetic which I find interesting.
W: You can really identify to the Google Earth aesthetic in “Further Out” indeed. Like a 3D version of it?
Naomi Ellis: I think having just come back from Japan I was feeling a bit dislocated myself. I was exploring how the Internet further provokes this sense of being disorientated; and then tried to bring that feeling out into physical space. Through my piece I wanted to create that