Christopher MacInnes @ Generator Projects

Upon entering Generator Projects’ newly refurbished collective/members' space, you are greeted by a series of strange sounds announcing Christopher MacInnes’ show. Stepping behind a heavy black curtain and out of the warm member’s space, it’s dark and cold. A large projection dominates the main wall of the gallery. The sounds become clearer now, a clarion call of the post-internet age forming the soundtrack to a swooping journey through electrical circuit boards and strange fields of solar panels underneath a brooding, stormy sky.

These physical locations form the sites of existence for our online lives, bringing to mind a sort of Blade Runner aesthetic. This large video work creates a sense of vertigo as you stand and the view glides along strange columns stretching into infinity.  

The confrontation of the initial room subsides as you go through into the larger of the two spaces. A cleverly positioned projector and mirror reflect the image of a tree canopy onto a flat screen hanging above head level. A freestanding panel hosts another large projection, but this time the visuals are of a dystopian rainforest inhabited by futuristic pink screens. The soundtrack to this work consists of a disembodied voice spouting odd yet calming sentences about the future of our engagement with the digital world. For comfort, there are a few beanbags to sit on and gaze up at the canopy of this post-internet forest.

Throughout MacInnes' considered installation, even the projectors’ wires echo the vines of his invented landscape. His work brings to mind questions about our presence in the digital world, from his unravelling of the physical location of digital activity to what could be read as a glimpse into a potential future.