Dossier 18: What Was I Looking At Again?

Respite: an interactive essay

Is the internet a physical location that we navigate around? And if so, how difficult has the choice become to consciously versus unconsciously visit? This interactive essay explores the ways in which contemporary internet users seek mindless soothing respite from information overload, and the lengths we have to go to truly disconnect. The work takes a satirical deep dive into the tensions we feel between wanting to be informed and wanting to rest.

You can experience this work in the embedded iframe below, but please note that this work is best viewed on desktop in fullscreen on the original website ✨ here ✨

Blurring the lines between contemporary art, participatory installation, and public service announcement, Livi Wilmore uses gamified essays, installations, and speculative fiction to explore nostalgia, escapism, and the internet to gain an understanding of the societal impact of information overload and the internet. Livi gives reverence to the World Wide Web by exploring it as a physical location that we visit and have the choice to either consciously or unconsciously navigate around. She also looks at the spatial metaphors and environments of the web as a mirror world—from exploring cyberspace and creating GeoGities to Gen Z’s affiliation with liminal spaces mirroring the IRL death of the highstreet.