Synthetic Accretion, 2025
Recovered plastic, LED lights, and sound composed by Jason Kowalski
Site-specific installation
Synthetic Accretion
In the synthetic transcendence of new materials, we have created substances which defy both the limits and safeguards of ecological necessity. Just as plastic once freed humanity from the restraints of chemical bonds, now synthetic culture offers us freedom from the human spirit.
Synthetic Accretion explores AI and plastic as parallel components of an emergent synthetic human experience. Through recovered transparent plastic waste, and shifting multicolored light, the installation mirrors the disorientation and ambient technological allure of contemporary cultural networks.
If the accumulation of microplastics in the human blood stream are a physical manifestation of synthetic process, Synthetic Accretion invites us to consider the immaterial synthetic as a corollary in the dream-oceans of our collective unconscious.
Questions of fidelity and discordance were extended into the space created by viewers’ interactions during and post-exhibition, where light modulations created fluctuating distortions in shared video and images.
