Modern Living & Neurotica

Hoogerbbrugge work seems to be a reflection of our inward perception of ourselves at times of personal conflict, and many pieces have rather disturbing imagery.

Hoogerbbugge’s unseen, disturbed self is demonstrated in his artworks. Most seem to be representations of feelings one might have when something bad happens in our lives, but others are apparently more of an abstraction of some general feelings people have concerning the modern world we live in.

The animated gifs with sounds aren’t entirely “new” technology, but gifs themselves are multiple pictures animated together– either hand-drawn like Hoogerbbugge’s, or compressed videos. Having the animations be short loops with or without interactivity makes the user undertake the responsibility of either observing or manipulating the artist’s representations of the world. These new representations of the world are new representations of the self that are hidden by our outward self.

I believe the new selves that the users can see would be effected by their personal experiences. Each person has a very distinct past that will change their perception of the new self that they see in the art. My take was more critical and dismissive of the work, whereas (I’m assuming) some people might have found a much deeper meaning behind the art.

These new selves that the artist has displayed are definitely accessible by the poor. We’re all human, after all. Perhaps some will be less introspective than others, but there will still be some that understand that their outward presentation of the self isn’t what they know to be their true self– that which is hidden and shown by the artwork.

The modern society that’s created by these new representations of the self that the artist shows could be one that is rather sinister and depressing. Outwardly, we always say, “Fine, how are you?” when asked, even if we’re inwardly dealing with something very difficult. We hide our true selves– the ones that the artist is expressing– from people because if were all to show what we’re constantly dealing with, nothing would get done. Being able to brush past one another and not have to take in everyone’s problems– like those that the artist shows– makes our world mich more functional and fluid. If society didn’t suppress the negative things we all experience, our social media and everyday interactions would be dismal and hard to deal with everyday.

Nobody Here

The artist’s mirror of himself is a strange cloud of words that he seemed to have created over time when they popped into his head for one reason or another. It’s almost like the way we google something that we don’t know, but rather than looking for an answer, the artist is writing a journal of sorts in his thoughts.

This reflection of the random thoughts– or short journal entries hidden around the site– is a look into the way he thinks. We usually don’t verbalize the kind of things the artist has written– similar to Modern Living. His definitions of words aren’t literal, but seem to be related to his experience with the word itself, specifically when it’s tied to a story he explains somewhere else.

It’s a bit like a website of Twitter posts, but with more existential thoughts about life. There’s a lot of posts, and we understand that the artist is somewhat anxious about his life. This kind of posting of inner thoughts anonymously would shape an invisible self that might foster a sense of peace within the self by putting these thoughts out in the world.

I believe race/gender/class/culture/age/other factors will influence these invisible selves. If we were to share these inner thoughts and experiences secretly, there would be an obvious dichotomy between the experience someone would have with the word “money” depending on who they are.

I believe the very poor have access to these invisible selves– everyone does. Perhaps some people don’t think as deeply about life and the world, but there will always be people who do.

A secret journal of these inner thoughts would either create a sense of camaraderie or a disconnect. A sense of belonging to a group would occur when there’s a common experience that a lot of users would see– most would relate “puppy” to a good memory. A disconnect would occur when you have a very diverse group of users who have wholly different experience and word association. Different people with different lives makes it hard to connect on deep level when they have radically different views on life. Just look at the average US citizen’s Tweets versus the 45th Presidents.