Personal computers, smartphones, and tablets have become an integral part of our daily lives; they have become our planners, assistants, calculators, clocks, cameras, and music players. It would be hard to imagine contemporary life without them. Traditional forms of communication, such as letters or physical photographs, are becoming a thing of the past. While technology tempts us with instant communication and the wide range of information that available to us via email, chat, social media, and online communities, it creates a new, instantaneous, and global sense of space and time. The more we live in the digital cloud, the more it merges with the physical reality that encourages us to be online constantly. Although this parallel world promises instant connection, the question arises – with whom?

The undeniable presence of the digital environment has not only changed our relationship with physical reality, but it has also become a disquieting phenomenon at both the individual and societal level and it influences the ways in which we perceive and experience life around us. Photography as a medium has also emerged in the context of technological change, significantly expanding our perception. Since photography allows us to observe the world more broadly, can it also become a catalyst for new or alternative models for our relationship with the environment? Even now, the connection with technology raises the question of whether we, as organic beings, are moving towards loneliness and social alienation, or whether we will be able to adapt to the new and artificial state of digital mediation? This parallel world not only questions our connection with nature, but also our relationship with personal memories. Can technology replace nostalgia? Or rather, does it contribute to the creation of a new world?

Digitised images from Kristīne Krauze-Slucka’s project Echo are exhibited at stops along Riga public transport routes. The project is comprised of images in chlorophyll created on organic plant leaves obtained through natural sunlight. The images are supplemented with an audio guide that allow visitors to reflect on a technology-saturated everyday life as well as on our relationship with nature.

Participants: Kristīne Krauze-Slucka (LV)
Curator: Anete Skuja (LV)
Image: Kristīne Krauze-Slucka, from the series Echo, 2019