Steven Cottingham is interested in the difference between reality and realism. For instance, how is it that images of fire produce real heat and light? In an era of deep fakes and fake news, images lose their assumption of verisimilitude. But just because they are not ‘true’ does not mean they aren’t also ‘real’. These images are used to construct rather than capture reality—each one of them is produced by workers carrying out certain visions of how reality should be represented and what real life should be like. Cottingham suggests that our shared reality is populated by these constructed images: advertisements and algorithms used for commercial and political ends alike. These omnipresent media forms may not truly represent our diverse, individual experiences of reality, and yet they nonetheless orient us into our daily roles as workers, citizens, and subjects.
Dodge charger fire sim, 2020 animated rendering, audio
By using open source rendering software, Cottingham produced tableaus of implausible but nonetheless realistic (that is, believable) events. A car burns on a soundstage, mixing highly-staged commercial production techniques with spontaneous protest tactics. Heat radiates out from the electronics, reinstating the physicality of otherwise virtual representations. In this way, we can start to grasp the slippage between signs and their signifiers in this disorienting media landscape where nothing seems to add up.
Steven Cottingham is an artist and curator based in Vancouver. Cottingham holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia and a BFA from the Alberta College of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited across Canada, the US and Cuba, as well as several locations in Europe.
For more information about Steven’s work, visit his website.
