Jacqueline Hassink: Unwired
by By photographer Jacqueline Hassink
Paperback. New. Unwired combines two concurrent projects by Dutch photographer Jacqueline Hassink (born 1966), both of which address our increasingly digitally connected world. In Unwired Landscapes, she seeks out those few remaining places where it is still impossible to broadcast a network: remote areas like the 3775743987 GB
Title: Jacqueline Hassink: Unwired
Author: By photographer Jacqueline Hassink
Format/binding:Paperback
Binding: Paperback
ISBN 10:3775743987
ISBN 13:9783775743983
Wi-Fi Free Landscapes - Jacqueline Hassink
28.02.2018 |REVIEW —Jareh Das
Issue no5
okt - nov 2018
Entanglement
With this in mind, Jacqueline Hassink’s exhibition Unwired, currently on view at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, takes this notion of digital abandonment a step further, by documenting so-called ‘white spots’, areas in the world without cell phone reception or Wi-Fi connection, places that allow one to really physically be offline. Hassink asks the question: “What does it feel like to live without telephone and Wi-Fi connections – to be ‘unwired’?” Adopting a somewhat investigative journalistic approach, the artist travelled around the world to the few remaining white spots. These locations include remote forests on the Japanese island of Yakushima, the Svalbard Islands in the Arctic Ocean and the mountains of Iceland, and even a ‘digital detox’ spa in Germany. At these locations, Hassink photographed the scenery and interviewed people about what it is like to live unwired lives, thus reinforcing romantic ideals of the undiscovered and untouched in the natural world.
Exhibition overview Jacqueline Hassink - Unwired.
Exhibition overview Jacqueline Hassink - Unwired.
The first room is one of large-format photographs depicting lush green landscapes in remote locations including Langisjór in Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður, Iceland, Onoaida trail in Yakushima Forest, Japan and Svalbard, the Norwegian island close to the Polar Circle. The photographs’ scale is representative of the physical experience of isolation when present in these locations. Scanning the images, there are no people and as such solitude becomes the dominant characteristic of being offline. At least that is how Hassink appears to see it.
The adjoining room pairs more images of mountainous terrain with kitsch interiors of the luxury ‘detox’ spa, Villa Stéphanie in Baden Baden, Germany. The spa prides itself for its unique rooms equipped to block all Wi-Fi signals, thus offering guests a tranquil, tech-free experience. It also promises a tech-free arrangement for those looking to regain control over their digital addictions. Situated in between these two main exhibition spaces are headsets with audio-interviews in which various individuals describe their motivations for seeking out white spots. Some tell of their personal histories in a confessional manner, and seek isolation as escapism from urban life for a more contemplative and slowed-down pace.
Langisjór 2, Unwired Landscapes, 63°58'11"N 18°41'6"W, Road F235, Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður, Iceland, Summer, 17 August 2015 ©Jacqueline Hassink
Suite 634, 1, Unwired Landscapes, Master Bedroom, unwired, Villa Stéphanie Baden - Baden, Germany, 14 December 2015 © Jacqueline Hassink
The exhibition ends with a multi-channel installation shot entirely on several iPhones and aptly titled iPortrait. This brings the viewers’ attention to the startling amount of time people spend on their phones whilst commuting on metros in metropoles such as Beijing, London and Tokyo. One could argue, on the one hand that what else is there to do on a long boring journey, but on the other, seeing the mirroring effect of such extensive disconnectedness from real life magnified and in your face does conjure up some unease of our present digital consumption.
The exhibition is part of a larger collaborative multimedia project, White Spots, which is available for a limited time as an app, that gives locations to white spots across the globe. This collaboration between Hassink, information designer Richard Vijgen and documentary filmmaker Bregtje van der Haak brings together different specializations. They travelled together, arguably on a pilgrimage of sorts only few can afford, to explore and document these unwired landscapes, communities, and lifestyles. The interactive app includes a network scanner, White Spots World Map, 38 videos, 4 virtual reality documentaries by Van der Haak and 4 photographic stories by Hassink.
The exhibition Unwired begins with strict instructions to hand over your mobile phone and take off your shoes prior to entering the exhibition spaces. A move that feels both didactic and creates immediate suspicion as it emphasizes the creation of a disconnected, tranquil space. The momentary transportation into the world of white spots, as experienced by Hassink, Van der Haak and Vijgen seeks to comment on the impacts of digital technologies on how we see the world, and whilst this did not fully manifest in the exhibition, it was evident that Unwired overall, is characteristic of Hassink’s rigorous research methodologies through the interviews and journeys that precede the final images. It still remained unclear how viewing disconnected spaces through images might help shape new social norms for the digital age as one still has to go and experience it for oneself; the untouched and unwired which is a luxury for the limited few.
Jacqueline Hassink - Unwired, Nederlands Fotomuseum, t/m 6.05.2018.
Jareh Das
is een schrijver en curator, momenteel verblijvend in Rotterdam, die schrijft over kunst, mode, muziek en cultuur
See also
Jacqueline Hassink (1966 - 2018) Liked to Capture the Silence next to Places of Power Conceptual Photography
Views & Reviews UNWIRED Graphic Design Irma Boom JACQUELINE HASSINK Conceptual Photography
Wat vonden we ervan?
Lex De Bruijn9 februari 2018, 17:00
Soumaya den Brinker (64) en Saskia van der Jagt (53)
Tijdelijk niet werkzaam en docent recht
Saskia: 'Het was verwarrend dat we bij binnenkomst onze telefoon moesten inleveren en onze schoenen uit moesten doen. Je komt binnen in een donkere ruimte met alleen licht op de foto's. En daar kijk je dan op je sokjes naar, dat is indrukwekkend.'
Soumayia: 'Je ziet foto's van verlaten landschappen en bossen waar je geen bereik meer hebt op je telefoon. Maar je ziet ook foto's van mensen in het openbaar vervoer, waar iedereen continu met elkaar verbonden is. Toch zie ik overeenkomsten. In beide omgevingen is er sprake van isolement. De mensen op hun telefoon zijn alleen in een ruimte vol mensen.'
Jos Stalmeijer (69)
Gepensioneerd
'Door de sobere opstelling ontstaat een gevoel van stilte en leegte. Die thema's komen terug in de foto's. Je ziet het zowel in de weidsheid van de IJslandse landschappen als in de beslotenheid en het mystieke van de Japanse bossen. Mijn favoriet hangt aan het eind: een schitterend lange stroom water door een landschap met bergen op de achtergrond.'
Aad Bustraan (88) en Marijke Bustraan (58)
Gepensioneerd en werkzaam in het basisonderwijs
Marijke: 'Ik ben opgegroeid in de natuur, mijn ouders namen mij elk weekend mee de natuur in. Het is net alsof ik zelf weer op die plaatsen ben. De foto's zijn van ongerepte natuur. Dat straalt stilte en rust uit.'
Aad: 'Ik vond de foto's indrukwekkend, dat kwam door de grootte. De kwaliteit van de foto's is ook zo goed dat ze zo groot gepresenteerd kunnen worden.'
Lisa van Deventer (35)
Opleidingscoördinator ict-afdeling
'De mooie details vallen me op: je ziet bijvoorbeeld de lijnen in een boomschors en de naden van de bladeren. Ik werd de foto's ingezogen, ik stond als het ware zelf in het landschap, dat voelde heel bijzonder.'
Unwired - Jacqueline Hassink. (Nederlands Fotomuseum - t/m 6 mei)?
