What is self but information—mitochondrial DNA stored in some reclusive server farm, shaping our personal habits? Information—data, the ones and zeros, the code that is everywhere. In this self-portrait, the image, first photographed with the wet plate collodion process of the 1850s, was scanned and then broken down into the most basic code I could achieve. As the projected portrait data flows across and down the monolithic form, I express the complex isolation that is my creative endeavor. The lonely tones of the clinical voice, overlaid with distorted personal devotions and tapping fingers, give direction to lost time.
Aaron C Packard, Self Portrait (Monolith), rear-projection fabric, PVC, video projector, and mirrors, 2014, 72x24”