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Alex Ebel

Guy Atcheson

HR Giger  

Landscapes

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Video Game

This game is based on both the book Roadside Picnic and the film Stalker

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Science Fiction Book Covers and Film Posters

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Stalker Stills

WRITER: Forget about us, the main thing is that Professor’s bag with underwear is sound! PROFESSOR: So do not poke your nose into others’ underwear, if you cannot understand. WRITER: And what should I actually understand here? Oh, some binomial theorem… Writer lies down on a tiny dry island by the shore of the channel. WRITER: Oh, some psychological abyss. In the institute we are disliked, our expedition cannot be financed. So … let’s stuff our rucksack with various manometers and crapmeters, let’s get into the Zone illegally… And let’s verify all the miracles of the place with algebra. (Professor leans at a sloping wall.) Nobody in the world has an idea about the Zone. And there, of course, a sensation! Television, female fans dying at your feet, bringing crowns of laurel… (Stalker lies 14 down on the rocks, coughs.) …our Professor appears all in white and declares: “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin”. And, naturally, everyone opens… (Professor is lying with his legs tucked.) …their mouths, shout in chorus: Nobel’s prize for him!.. PROFESSOR: You’re a poor little bedraggled writer, a home-grown psychologist. You should better write on the walls of the lavatories, you ungifted sham. WRITER: Languid. Languid! You are not able to!.. (A dog runs across the water, stops.) You do not know how it has to be done. PROFESSOR: All right. Ok, I’m going to ask for a Nobel’s prize. And what are you rushing there for? You want to award the mankind… (Stalker is lying on the rocks face down, his arm under his head.) …with pearls of your bought inspiration? WRITER: I don’t give a fig for the mankind. In all your mankind… (The water: there can be seen a piece of gauze, a piece of a mirror, Stalker’s hand; Stalker turns his face to the others.) …I’m interested in only one person. That’s me. All the same if I am something worth or the same piece of nuts as some others. PROFESSOR: And if you come to know, that actually you are… WRITER: You know what, Mister Einstein? I do not wish to argue with you. In the arguments the truth is born, d**n it. Listen, Chingachgook… (Stalker is lying with his head resting on his fist (sepia).) …didn’t you lead here a great number of people… STALKER: (colors) Not that many as I would have liked to… WRITER: We-ell, it’s all the same, that’s not the point… Why did they go here? What did they want? STALKER: I suppose happiness. WRITER: Well, yes, but what exactly kind of happiness? STALKER: People do not like to speak about the innermost. Moreover, it should concern neither you nor me. WRITER: Anyway, you are lucky. I have not seen a happy man in whole my life. STALKER: (opens his eyes, turns his head to them) Neither did me. They return from the Room, I lead them back and we never meet again. Wishes do not come true in a moment. WRITER: Didn’t you have a wish to … ah … use this pretty Room? Ah? STALKER: Ah … it’s ok for me as it is

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Stalker (1979)

A science fiction film directed by Russian filmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, loosely based on the book Roadside Picnic (1972). It explores themes of philosophy, psychology, theology, belief, and hope.

The term stalker is became part of the Russian language as a result of these books. In Roadside Picnic, stalkers are people who trespass into a forbidden area known as the Zone and steal valuable extraterrestrial artifacts, which they then sell. It's claimed that the author's took the term from the English novel Stalky & Co. It is a collection of stories about three school-going protagonists display a "know-it-all, cynical outlook on patriotism and authority". After Tarkovsky's film the term acquired the meaning of a guide who navigates forbidden/ uncharted territories.

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Story

For the Story project I explored the accumulation of material over time. I focused on the idea of collecting turning to hoarding.

Hoarding was one of my first ideas when I thought about story. Every new object added to the collection is a mark of time passing. Once something is added to a hoard it is unlikely to be removed or moved. The accumulation of objects in living spaces shapes how the owners live their lives. Because collecting is an accumulation of objects in one place, it has always made me think of a space remaining constant as time passes with in it.

I also looked into the different perceptions of the excessive accumulation of material, whether its that of a mental illness, a symptom of capitalism, or pure greed.

Since hoarding is something I have personal experience with I was very interested in exploring it. I looked into the nurture/nature function behind hoarding behavior to help capture the perceptions of someone with experiencing it. I wanted to capture some of the beauty that can be drawn from coveted items.

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Discarded Religious Objects

There is a significant contrast between these disregarded mass produced religious objects and the concept in Christianity that discourages the possession of material goods.

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Sacred Hearts

Close Ups

David Finchers work made me excited to try take some close up shots of my own

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David Fincher

David Fincher is a director known for his psychological thrillers. He uses wide shots and extreme close-ups in his films

His close-up are what I'm focusing on. They can draw you're attention to what's important in a scene, showing detail you may not otherwise catch. s well as increasing tension, or give insight into the mind of a character.

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Broken Mirror Pictures

Some photos of objects through a shard of glass

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Religious Objects Among the Clutter

The deterioration of symbolic value for empty attachment. The sanctity of the religious objects is obscured when everything is regarded with value, as if every item is an idol.

With the harsh lighting its like these characters are finally in the limelight. They're getting the attention they've been without for years before they're quickly plunged back into darkness.

picture taken using a mirror

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Mirror Pictures

With the mirror I was trying to capture how inaccessible the clutter becomes as the collection gets bigger. Visually it expands the size of the hoard as well as reflecting the staticness of it and the helplessness of it.

If you think of a mirror as a window to an untouchable dimension one can draw comparisons to that quality with the struggle hoarders have when interacting with their environment/collection.

"A 2012 study from Hartford Hospital has also shown that when compared with people without hoarding tendencies, hoarders experience more activity in the anterior cingulate cortex—another brain area involved in decision making—when dealing with their own possessions, and less when thinking about other people's things. In other words: It's tougher for hoarders to clean up their own stuff."

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 Canto VII - Fourth Circle of Hell

This is the circle dedicated to the sin of avarice, the destination of prodigals and hoarders. 

Since hoarders spend their lives acquiring wealth and material goods they are doomed to push the weight of their earthly possessions as rocks against the opposing force of the wasteful.

Oddly enough, when I was considering what I wanted to do for the Story project I was torn between hoarding and a section of the Divine Comedy (specifically Canto I). I was pretty enthused to remember that Dante wrote about hoarders specifically. Although “hoarders” in this context generally refers to misers and the greedy, not those suffering with a mental illness I found it to be an interesting angle.  

The acquiring and coveting of material possessions has often been heavily associated with sin. In fact, the souls in this circle are regarded with more contempt than in any other by Dante. He blames avarice for ethical and political corruption in his society, this response being consistent with the biblical saying that avarice is "the root of all evils".

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” - Matthew 16:26

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” - John 2:15

Studies have shown a greater emotional attachment and engagement to belongings in those suffering with HD. Coveting is a large part of the condition.

(I am absolutely not of the belief that hoarders are sinners 😳)

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Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was discovered to have had a hoarding habit after he passed away in 1987. A lot of work shows a huge appreciation for everyday/found objects.

"some of the neurological hallmarks of hoarding might indicate a giftedness in the aesthetic appreciation of the physical world, rather than pure illness"

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High Exposure

These photos were inspired by the same vein of thought as my camera obscura pictures. While the fogginess was the effect I was interested in that series, in this one I was looking at over stimulation. Ignoring the dusty stillness of the scene and focusing on how it feels as an outsider to excitedly explore these types of spaces. 

High exposure has also always reminded me of the relationship between time and space. The space is extremely still through years but the lens of the explorer moves quickly.

Pushing the contrast and saturation up made for images I found very pretty.

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Camera Obscura

The tunnel effect I got in these pictures corresponded very well with the actual act of looking through this building. There was little space to walk and as is the case with many hoarders homes, I depended on narrow, claustrophobic passages to get around. 

The spotlight effect was also very apt as most of the windows being blocked and some pictures taken in the basement meant the light levels were low. I used a torch to navigate and some rooms were so dark the round area of light cast by the torch was all i could see. 

The fogginess was the effect I had originally set out to take advantage of. The places are dusty and cluttered. Moving through these rooms felt like traversing a hostile landscape, clamoring over bags of who-knows-what and tiptoeing allowing narrow trails floor space, all this combined with the low light made for a hazy visual experience.

The stillness of these scenes had me thinking of this foggy effect almost as dust gathered not on the objects, but on the lens through which the objects are viewed. 

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Close Ups

"Every single object has a direct tie to my heart. It's exhausting." -hoarder

When asked to perform simple behavioral tasks that test visual memory, categorization, information processing, when asked to identify objects' most prominent characteristics (shape and color, etc.), or to group objects based on shared characteristics, people with hoarding disorder had difficulty completing the tasks.

Essentially, people with hoarding disorder have trouble categorizing things.

Psychologist Randy Frost authored the first systematic study of hoarding disorder (before it had acquired its name or DSM status) He identified that some of the neurological hallmarks of hoarding might indicate a giftedness in the aesthetic appreciation of the physical world, rather than pure illness.

Zooming in presents itself as a means of recognizing the aesthetic value of many of these hoarded items. By isolating the individual entities from the clutter I can find a greater appreciation for them.