For his work NetArt #1-10, Steven Aishman explores the intimacy and availability of our social and emotional selves to others in an age when interaction is mediated increasingly by social media and smart devices. Regularly for a period of years, Aishman and his wife scribbled their passing (ephemeral, elastic) thoughts onto a chalkboard akin to text and chat messages. Over time patterns emerged; hastily written notes appeared insightful in new ways, while en masse the anecdotes take on a character both meticulous and ephemeral. Conceiving of a permanent state of heightened romance, Aishman sees as much love in the elementary jottings of a shopping list in of a more considered sonnet; as each message becomes amplified evidence of a family’s emotional attachment to one another. In an engineered reversal of intimacy, some of the family’s most candid moments are made available using the augmented reality app, Aurasma.

Each image in NetArt #1-10 contains an video piece overlaid on the work using augmented reality. To view the videos, download the Aurasma app from the app store on your smartphone, follow ‘saishman1’ and point the camera at the artwork displayed. A video will appear over the image of the work to reveal another layer in the creation of the work.