Jesse Boschmann – Media Arts

Filter Feeding (Video Version. Wear Headphones) This is the digital recreation of the videos and audio which would be played in a gallery setting. Stereo audio is used so it is best experienced while wearing headphones. You may take off one side of your headphones to isolate either half of the audio if you wish.

Filter Feeding (Installation Documentation) This is the documentation for when I had installed this work in a physical gallery. Two videos pieces play on opposite walls to each other. On one side there are videos of Asian social media influences, makeup tutorials, models, skin product advertisements. In the center, an image of the artist's face goes through multiple applications of a beauty filter developed in Eastern Asia. On the opposite wall, the exact same types of media are presented, but Western based.

Filter Feeding

This work is meant to demonstrate how digital beauty filters perpetuate the biased beauty standards in Eastern Asia vs. the West. Since I was able to grow up in both China and Canada, I noticed how the beauty ideals in both places seemed to almost contradict each other, which seemed absurd to me. Our search for “true beauty” within societies which based those standards on purely subjective ideals is futile, as the legitimacy of these standards dissolves seeing how they shift and transform depending on location.

Pica-choo

A looping animation where Picasso's "Tête de Femme" accidentally comes to life and the pieces struggle to put themselves back together. The audio consists purely of background noises you may encounter during a gallery visit. Not directly related to my practice, but this style of motion graphics is regularly incorporated into all of my work. I had fun making this one. Enjoy.

Shelf Video (Video Version. Wear Headphones) This is the digital recreation of my work which was installed in a physical gallery. The audio is stereo so it is best experienced with headphones. The first video on the left is a fake Apple advertisement where a real apple is presented as opposed to a device (a real voiceover from Apple is used). The video in the middle contains a series of individuals unboxing their new iPhones. The video on the right is a series of individuals explaining the issues they've encountered with their iPhones.

Shelf Life (Installation Documentation) This is the documentation of the installed work. On the left wall is the fake Apple ad, on the right are user's videos of unboxings and negative experiences, and in the center of the space is a plinth where a series of five apple slices sit in a line inside plastic bags, gradually increasing in levels of decay.

Shelf Life

This installation suggests that the devices we consume, much like the foods we consume, also have an expiry date. Technology is inherently limited, flawed, and biased because we as humans are inherently limited, flawed, and biased. We are constantly being sold this idea that the technology we are being buying has embodied the future and are tempted with the potential to possess a device which has capabilities outside of ourselves. In reality, our tools will never provide us with insight outside of what we already are. Apple has mastered the art of selling the idea of intelligence. Through impressive yet somehow still vague terminology, they continue to satisfy consumer's desire for something never been seen before. Technology expires too.