Swarm

"We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness." — A Schweitzer As a child growing up in rural Ohio, I remember a desire to be with people. Our closest neighbors lived miles away; it was during our harsh winters that I became aware of the need for and function of human relationships and communal belonging. The slow movement of time within this expansive childhood space yielded my fascination with what it means to be emotionally fulfilled through one’s connections to both oneself and each other. Today, that sense of belonging I once thrived upon is waning. The dissociative impact of technologies—such as social media, the internet, and handheld devices—erodes both tangible communities and the complex proximal relationships that historically sustain them. Swarm observes and addresses a culture engineered to intentionally distract each of us, serving to further alienate and isolate within an increasingly inhuman and entropic infosphere, itself now a proxy for the teeming, interactive physical spaces of my youth. This work ultimately emphasizes my ambivalence. At once, I participate in the disintegration of community while also longing for restoration and growth.