Radiant Slugs by Ben K. Voss, 2013
Artist Statement:
Ben K. Voss is a NY based artist exhibiting his virtual project Radiant Slug that explores the smartphone as a catalyst for ideas and questions around technology, human behavior and the imagination. Established in 2013, Radiant Slug, is an Instagram account of images that blend street photography and digital drawing to depict beautiful, elegant and at times humorous portraits of strangers absorbed in their phone through a variety of manifestations. These manipulations, such as laser beams, energy fields, bubbles, evolving cocoon structures and flares are the result of the collision and/or merging of physical and virtual spaces of which the phone serves as the gateway. Voss is fascinated by the multiplicity of worlds we navigate daily vis-à-vis our smart phones and sees this ubiquitous device not as a tool, but rather as a portal. Consequently, the sidewalk becomes the office, the park becomes the mall and anywhere and everywhere is ripe for a selfie. Thus the resultant posted images exist within the stream of social media expressing our contemporary state that is situated between dualities of focus and distraction, awe and annoyance, boredom and engagement, play and work, viewer and participant while underlying our immemorial desire to connect.