In my work Structures, I am looking at the way we have organized our lives based on consumption. Structures consists of three parts; Structures of Entertainment, Structures of Commerce and Structures of Living. Through the use of Google Maps, I try to understand and visualize the structure of consumerism in which we are living. The view from above enables me to see patterns and structures that we have built for ourselves and how the consumer culture shapes our society. I focus on recognizable everyday places, sites of consumption and entertainment and how we have organized our western society around the necessity of ever-increasing rates of personal consumption in search for success and happiness.
Studying this simulation of the world from above gives me an opportunity to observe and reflect upon how structures repeat themselves and how we make use of the land. It is not only physical formations of roads and houses that become visible, but also how social and economic structures forms the way we organize our lives and construct our identities.
Through cutting out what I find is the essence of a specific location, I try to enhance and make visible things we often take no notice of in every day sites and phenomena whilst the white areas in the pictures provides room for the viewer’s own thoughts. Although the might be perceived as collages, they are not. Nothing is added to the original image instead the editing of the images is an elaborate work of cutting things out.