Since the introduction of the internet and more easy-to-use social medias and video sharing websites, our constantly updating feeds have been increasingly saturated with an insatiable bombardment of horrifying and heartbreaking headlines. We see them while watching television, browsing the internet on computers, and as we scroll through different social media apps on our mobile phones. As these alarmingly frequent tragedies occur and seep into our lives they become regular topics of mourning, debate, and conversation as humanity struggles to cope with the realities we face today. Where in the pre-internet era one could only to relate to another’s loss, anxiety, and terror through oral storytelling or written text, we now live in a world where we can relive the real sights and sounds of personally going through terrible events as they are more and more frequently captured on video and shared across the internet. Collections of moving, colored, square pixels dance across our screens accompanied by arrangements of electronic tones, both replicating the effects of experiencing an event from a first-person point of view.

The sequences of colored pencil drawings in Clear Diffusion are hand-drawn versions of pixelated screenshots from first-person footage of recent mass shootings in Las Vegas, Nevada and Parkland, Florida and the audio artworks are bit-reduced sound pieces sourced from the original audio content of these same videos. Both medium-based series simplify the terror and violence at hand into visual and auditory digital patterns that we regularly experience. This abstracts the subject matter and at the same time makes more clear the very simple individual pixels and tones that, when organized in a certain context, can cause great fear and commotion within our own persons as well as a society. Simplifying these horrific images into hand drawn pixels makes it harder to make out what is being depicted and one’s initial impression of the artworks is not likely to be one of sadness or disgust. After learning about the subject matter though, one begins to look for shapes that they can identify as being linked to the shootings and feel the sickening impact of the imagery of mass murder. These pixels have the power to make us feel and perceive very strong emotions and even share experiences with one another that change our outlook as individuals as well as a society.

Each of the six colored pencil drawings is sized to match the dimensions of the average personal laptop screen (14”x8”) through which many people experience this subject matter. The drawings were made on an archival photo paper manufactured by Tito Paper, who also manufactures the paper products used by Mandalay Bay (the hotel and casino from which the shots were fired on the unsuspecting crowd in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 1, 2017). The relatively rudimentary and universally basic medium of colored pencil was used in order to intensify the personal relationship between the artist and the beholder and the artworks.

Images from these mass shootings were chosen in order to directly relate with recent horrific events that everyone is affected by and far too familiar with. These acts of domestic terrorism are actively discussed, viewed, and recalled by popular culture in the United States and throughout the world. We have access to first-person-oriented content and therefore, in viewing it, we take on the position of the subject capturing the video. We find ourselves in their circumstance. Even though the experience of the individual holding the camera was very scarring in a very personal way, their experience is transferred to an entire culture that feels its shockwaves. We feel levels of sickness, terror, shock, and sadness without ever actually experiencing the event in person. Through our online interactions, the entire world shares the experience and the trauma of domestic terrorism.

The topic of translation of emotion and personal impact through technology, especially in the case of worldwide tragedies and other viral events, is an important one to consider as we actively experience this world through new points of view. We have entered into an era in which we can literally share impactful and personal experiences. As humanity evolves as a species and continues to utilize more tools and methods to more actively participate in uploading our own experiences with ever-growing audiences, we begin to share common experiences in ways much more vivid than in generations of the past. By taking in these hand drawn arrangements of pixels one can see the ingredients that are pieced together to recreate experience. These little ingredients hold the power to heavily impact our world view and our cultural interactions. This phenomenon holds power and will lead to many compelling situations and opportunities for different forms of manipulation in humanity’s not-so-distant future.