CHRISTINE MARIE
analog as nature
In development
Analog versus digital.
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Nature versus destruction.
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The battle unfolds on a giant cube, where analog devices casting natural landscapes compete with intermittent AI-powered digital projections of climate disaster. The convergence and clash of these visuals invite reflection on the fragility of our environment and the profound consequences of unchecked technological advancement.
Recipient of the New York State Council for the Arts Support for Artist grant and the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art grant.
Analog As Nature, is a large-scale, multimedia, multi-channel art installation exploring the theme of environmental precarity through the interplay of analog and digital imagery projected onto the surfaces of a 10-foot cube.
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Harnessing light and shadow, layered collages of moving film and photographic transparencies create natural landscapes. From ground level, numerous analog devices cast these images upward. Over time, these serene settings are disrupted by oversaturated, AI-generated digital projections mounted above, depicting climate-induced disasters such as rising tides and wildfires.
The high-lumen, nearly blinding digital light appears to dissolve the analog images, leaving spectators in silence and darkness as they contemplate the experience. After a long pause, the gentle whirring of analog devices signals their return to life. Rhythmic clicks form a sonic landscape as shadows stretch and reshape into a moving seascape of large rock outcroppings and waves.
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Spectators can also enter the cube, immersing themselves in analog visuals. With anaglyph lorgnettes in hand, they watch as red/cyan shadows transform into frothy seafoam rising to their ankles.
The current images and video on this site document proof-of-concept experimentation using found 16mm films, colored gels, cutouts, transparencies, and a 5-foot paper cube.
These are early explorations, not final designs.
The theory of media archaeology examines how media formats and technologies have shaped –and have been shaped by– societal shifts. Analog As Nature features devices from different eras; vintage overhead projectors (invented in 1850) personifying nature settings, 16mm film crafting moving textures (invented in 1924), custom designed stereoscopic shadowgrams exploring 3D (invented in the 1920's), digital projectors (invented in the 1980s), and modern AI generators depicting global warming (2022–current). The project explores AI-generated visualizations of climate change to examine visual clichés of climate catastrophe.
The installation's creation is inspired by the work and legacy of Rachel Carson. Carson was a pioneering environmentalist, social revolutionary and the "Mother of the Modern Environmental Movement." In her seminal book Silent Spring (1962), Carson warned of the dangers chemical pesticides pose to natural systems raising questions about humanity’s relationship with nature: Who has the right to exploit, contaminate, or deplete vital ecosystems and freshwater resources?
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Unlike Silent Spring, which delivers a scientific and urgent warning, Carson's final book, The Sense of Wonder, is a lyrical and philosophical meditation—one that inspires readers to reconnect with the natural world. It's both a celebration of nature’s beauty and a call to action for its preservation. My impetus for engaging with Carson's work was to create a Sense of Wonder Garden Party, where her book would be read aloud.
The first Sense of Wonder Garden Party began as a social practice of listening and making. Participants encountered text from The Sense of Wonder and love letters written by Rachel Carson and her partner, Dorothy Freeman. Next they were invited to explore materials and share a visual response. Environmental activists and artists gathered with analog devices, growing plants and photographic transparencies of images from the garden, and nearby Muir Beach. We projected images of the natural world onto existing surfaces like the side of the house and a sheet draped over a trampolene.
I’ve partnered with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy to host a series of art-filled outdoor events inspired by the project. ​
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The first work-in-progress showing of the installation will be held in the University at Buffalo Department of Media Study (where I am a full-time assistant professor) in the Production Studio Art Space in the Center for the Arts near the close of the spring semester.
My methods are personal. My primary art practice has historically centered around creating with shadows, using handmade halogen lights. Early in my career, theater directors noticed my work and invited me to design large-scale shadows for their productions. Unfortunately, my lights were no match for their professional theatrical lights. Some productions also involved video designers, which added another layer of complexity. To accommodate my shadow choreography, the bright theatrical lights and video projections had to be dimmed—a request that caused tension. This challenge ties directly to the theme of my current project: analog versus digital.
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By personifying the natural world through analog imagery, I aim to highlight its organic beauty. Analog visuals possess a unique, almost visceral quality—they evoke a gestalt, inviting our minds to fill in the gaps making the experience inherently interactive. In contrast, digital video (composed of millions of pixels) emits light at the viewer. Using AI-generated, pixelated, and oversaturated images to depict climate catastrophe creates a striking metaphor for an ecosystem spiraling out of control due to global heating. The dissonance between analog and digital becomes a powerful lens through which to examine humanity’s role in this environmental crisis.
Related earlier work.
4 TRAINS. Large-scale live cimematic performance on three 20' screens, featuring analog images, and effects created with hand-made halogen lights, foils, colored gels, and props.​ 4 TRAINS explores the theme of industrialization, the natural world, and the loss of the feminine.
​Written, directed, and designed by Christine Marie. Premiered at Z Space and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, supported by MAP and the Jim Henson Foundation.