Geo Location | Nate Larson + Marni Shindelman

What are we hoping to reveal about ourselves when we share our thoughts and feelings on platforms like Facebook and Twitter? The internet offers an infinite amount of noise, but is anyone actually listening? Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman are. They’ve been tracking twitter feeds that include the GPS location of the tweet and then making photographs in those very locations. By using these tweets as captions for their images, Larson and Shindelman are giving shape to thoughts that are typically just a passing blip in the tweetscape.

In an age where we are all capable of making our own constructed personas online, we now spend a considerable amount of time crafting our digital identities. We are, in a sense, capable of celebritizing ourselves – publishing our own images that have been consciously polished and intentionally groomed. This allows for a type of invulnerability to how we present ourselves. Even in some seemingly personal tweets we read, there is a safe distance and vagueness between the author and his or her audience.

Because this form of personal expression is by its very nature lacking context, it is released into what feels like a cloud of anonymity. Thus, by communicating in a medium that does not reveal its full circumstances, we are able to give the appearance of sharing while in actuality remaining guarded.

So what is it about these images that peaks our curiosity and makes us want to see more? There is a very specific thrill we experience when we look at these photographs. Perhaps, it is like discovering a secret or witnessing the big reveal at the end of a magic trick. Or is it the voyeuristic pleasure of seeing the context that we are usually denied?

It is as though Larson and Shindelman are giving us a view of the secret man behind the curtain. These images give what was not initially offered — the physicality and context of the visual, real world — and in doing so, the images break the shield of invulnerability and control that social media enticingly seems to offer.

- Mia Dalglish + Lisa Woodward

You can see more of the work here.

See the exhibit at Pictura here.