Nothing 2 Watch (2022)
Red oak with a gel stain, acrylic, scavenged media + electronics, HTML/CSS
How are our media and cultural artifacts created, consumed, and preserved in an age when digital streaming services have rendered physical media increasingly obsolete?
Nothing 2 Watch aims to reckon with the increasingly complex relationship we have with the content we produce and consume. In this piece, the viewer is prompted to “find something to watch” by browsing through a series of images representing the kinds of titles one may find on a popular streaming service.
In trying to interact with this almost-too-familiar interface, the viewer will find that the titles themselves are ephemeral, designed to cycle through different (AI-generated) options in a frustrating, unpredictable manner.
This interface sits atop an impenetrable display case that, paradoxically, contains a finite number of actual, tangible titles. Though these titles are technically viable options for the viewer to select, they have been relegated to a purgatory state–permanent and useful, yet ultimately less desirable than the infinite scroll of one’s streaming service of choice.