The Way We've Always Seen: Transverse

Animated GIF 800 x 600 px, 24fps 128 Colors 2022

The works from Mark Dorf’s series "The Way We’ve Always Seen" uncover connections between technology, design, urbanism, and what is commonly considered “Nature”—connections that have always existed in symbiosis, but are rarely recognized as reality.

Transverse depicts a black and white forrest dripping with subtle color aberrations that continue the disruption of the black and white binary as seen in the other works form this series. Framing the image the viewer finds a subtle border of blue reminding them of the technological interfaces that we so often see through, and by extension, experience our existence through.

The forrest itself is turned into an architectural space through the insertion of ninety degree angled floor plane at the bottom of the composition. The gentle meditative loop pushes and pulls the constructed architecture reminding the viewer that even those spaces considered “Natural” are crafted and designed. Through the separation of "natural spaces" from the urban or “inhabited”, the human species further designs the world on which we live suggesting that even acts of preservation or conservation reveal the human hand despite their efforts of the opposite.

In the center of the composition, the viewer sees a mysterious glowing boulder. The soft glow produces a feeling of the unknown reminding us that even the “Natural” spaces that we experience every day contain multitudes of the unknown. Transverse seeks to re-enchant the banal or over-looked in order to remind the viewer of the complexities and mysteries of the common place.