Witnessing the vídeo installation of Jan Robert Leegte (The Netherlands) we are overwhelmed by the force of a simulated landscape. The storm can be heard sweeping through the trees as well as the roar of the ocean. Various screens and projections offer fragmented views of a natural scene.
The artist used a real-time landscape Simulator used in the gaming industry to create a fragmented view of a storm-ridden and flood-battered landscape.
A computer generated landscape is infinite and extremely detailed, but can be destroyed at the click of a button. This extreme fragility echoes our relation with nature in current times of climate change and ecological breakdown.
These forms bring us to 1997, Leegte’s pivotal moment in becoming an internet artist when he uploaded his first html file to a web-server. A simple gesture of clicking the button of standard FTP software. It is the interface of this humble uploading software which can be seen in the landscape, succumbed by simulated flooding and erosion. An interface that stood between the inside of an attic room and an ever expanding global network outside.
Jan Robert Leegte studied at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. His work has been exhibited all over Europe.
