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[vc_button2 title=”Visit Solgonda.com Now” color=”orange” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.solgonda.com||”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Solgonda is a experimental, labyrinthian work of internet art based on real events.  There are no winners or losers although perseverance may bring you to pages that are more rewarding.  There are no dead ends and there is a way out of every loop.  Some pages will load more slowly than others.  Most pages contain image or text links to other pages.  Some pages simply require waiting.

For best results: 

Avoid touch screens.  Use Mozilla Firefox or Chrome in full-screen mode.  Use headphones or a stereo surround system that includes a subwoofer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

 

amazing rock formation

amazing rock formation in JTNP near a campsite

I imagine the universe as a vast, wondrous, unsolvable puzzle.  My compulsion is not to make any attempt at solving but to merely collect, organize, and identify clues.  As an artist I am continually searching for moments of mystery or magic, instances of cognitive disorientation and epistemological incompleteness.

No medium is as simultaneously networked and confused as the internet, and no place in the United States is as full of magic and mystery as the American Southwest.  So, in the summer of 2012, supported in part by a Wolfstein Travel Grant from the University of Cincinnati, I spent several weeks exploring the Mojave desert in the northern portion of Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, taking photographs and making field recordings for an “interactive digital postcard”.  The project grew into what is now both a gallery installation and an internet art piece that can be accessed at Solgonda.com.

Both the gallery and web incarnations are interactive, relying on HTML, PHP, and JavaScript to weave together a labyrinthine network of pages or scenes consisting of photography, animation, scientific inscriptions, sound design, responsive music, visual poetry, etc.  Through disarranged representations, randomly generated navigation, and surprising and sometimes humorous feedback, Solgonda is designed to challenge notions of visual and scientific information as reliable paths to understanding and navigating our world.  The imagery spans a variety of subjects including geology, anthropology, fringe science, alternative living, the military, prehistoric cartography, etc.  In creating this project I worked in an intuitive manner, stringing together disparate subjects and imagery, creating sounds and music last to reinforce specific moods and ideas.

This project is related aesthetically and conceptually to a body of physical works, 10″ x 10″ mixed media pieces.  View those works now.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]