No humans here: Exploration in the digital age

No Humans Here connects a lineage between landscape painters of the Hudson River School and Impressionists with 3D landscape renderings from artists of the early digital age at the turn of the millennium – work that conveyed an era of unbound creativity before dwindling as populated by more and more people over time. This transition diluted elements of exploration and curiosity through actions of curation, control, and exploitation - to the point that what once was, no longer remains. The initial magic, mystery and creativity of those early explorers and inhabitants in this digital age are now merely artifacts. As global exploration began to reach its limits by the mid 20th century, the advent of digital space opened new lands to cultivate and explore. Artists of the 90’s began using modeling programs, beginning with natural landscapes and architecture as a launchpad for creativity, akin to previous eras of landscape art – with particular comparisons to the Hudson River School. These early digital worlds were void of human inhabitants due to the practical nature of digital space itself – that humans do not exist directly within, rather we (currently) interact externally – or their presence is only alluded to because of technical limitations. Unlike early American landscape paintings, users of this new medium were unconstrained by romanticized realism or religious fervor, rather, they were unbound by the vastness of their own imaginations, and fantasy and science fiction literary influences of the 20th century such as J.R.R Tolkien (1892-1973) and William Gibson (b. 1948). Additionally, the use of light, color, and visual-distortion brushstrokes of Impressionist landscape painting parallels the pixelated, low-resolution imagery of the early digital age. As of this writing, humans do not physically exist within digital space but use it as a gateway for mental projection. Digital space exists outside of time itself – records of its early history still live on online, untouched and without decay, while also constantly evolving through the present. No Humans here pays homages to the creativity of early 90's digital landscapes through nostalgia and reimagining, while also questioning hope, loss, and entropy of our digital futures.