Ewa Doroszenko

The starting point of the project is the contemporary understanding of the natural landscape. Virtual reality shifts and influences our perception of what „nature” is. Questioning the context of the original and copies, the relations between them, Ewa Doroszenko is interested in the phenomenon of landscape documentation and its representation, regarding how its position has changed at the moment when most of the places are perceived online. The project is a subjective study of how culture changes our longing for an idyllic natural landscape. Fascinated by technology and its incredible potential to change the way of life, using images from computer games and tourist guides, Doroszenko explores the formal possibilities of digital distortions and imperfections.

The idea of the project refers to the thesis put forward by the philosopher Alfred Korzybski: „The map is not the territory” and the concept of „simulacrum” proposed by Jean Baudrillard. Based on observations of the natural landscape, which is more often captured than directly experienced these days, Ewa Doroszenko tries to question the trust in digitally constructed images. The project blurs the boundary between different media. Using images from travel magazines, personal archives, Google Street View, popular computer games and other online sources, Doroszenko presents a visual study of how natural landscape images are being transformed by new technologies.

The project was realized under the Scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.