HINTERLAND
3D animated video
3 minutes and 37 seconds
2021
We are living through a massively formative era and our ability to understand the present is constructed both from our conception of history and the way we remember our past, but also from the way we imagine our future going forward. My practice is centered within this disturbance; at the crossroads of our past and future as a species wherein moments of incoherence can be mined for creative potential. Both the 3D animated video, HINTERLAND, as well as the accompanying physical installation explore various historical manifestations of architectural arches and gateways: from Neolithic dolmens, to ornate Baroque arches, and survivalistic remnants from a future-past – all congealing to create a speculative vision of the longtail effects of human history progressing toward collapse. A hinterland is typically thought of as the less-developed land next to a port, city, or coast, but it can also be understood as the limitations of one’s knowledge; that which is unexplored and ill-defined. In this work, I propose we conceive of the hinterland as a source of opportunity to develop new systems: to reimagine, to reorient, to build something new. I’m most inspired by the idea that if we created this world, then we can create a new one, too. HINTERLAND also parafictionally exists within a piece of speculative fiction called “Alphabet Retreat” that weaves the story of human history and the creation of language through the Alphabet Multinational Conglomerate Company’s corporate language and structure during a wellness retreat in the Mojave Desert. The story unpacks the idea of language as a distributed, decentralized code upon which all thoughts, meaning, and images can be expressed; and explores the idea that social organization is itself a hypertext protocol. From the Alphabet Retreat, “Gobekley can see it all perfectly below his astral body, still floating in calm observation. The Rosetta Stone is the key: as Egyptian hieroglyphs and demotic script fell out of fashion in the beginning of the last millennium, the documentation of an entire society was erased from human memory; its language unable to be discerned. Though much like the scribes of ancient Memphis offering a bridge between Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Ancient Greek, the Great Founders have offered a bridge between all systems, erasing any barrier to access the depths of humanity’s vast output.”
Caroline Turner-Anderson is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator currently based in Cincinnati, OH. Her work and research explore technology, deep time, and speculation about the near-future through a wide variety of media and materials. Her installations, 3D animated videos, and collaborative projects have been shown at numerous venues in the United States, as well as Norway, Argentina, Russia, and Germany. She received her MFA in Art and Technology from the University of Oregon in 2021 and is currently an Assistant Professor of New Media and Electronic Art at the University of Cincinnati College of DAAP.
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