Julian Wnuk

Nearly 3.2 billion images are shared daily across the internet. In this deluge of information, the consensus on what constitutes reality has collapsed. The fragmentation of culture by social media has given rise to niche communities and their own bubbles, as everyone undergoes an entirely different, algorithmically tailored simulation of reality.

As a chronic internet user, I spend most of my waking hours in front of a screen. A gesture of scrolling and posting became synonymous with existing. I'm stuck doom-scrolling everyday and I don't even care. Nothing really matters except the dopamine rush at this point. I'm lost in the pure Baudrillardian hyperreality and can no longer distinguish reality from its simulation.

In my role as an artist and chronic internet user, I created the 'Infinite Scroll' project to explore and document this phenomenon. Through this project, I construct photographs based on my deep dives into Instagram, Tumblr, Ar.ena, and DeviantArt to create portraits that reflect the psychological condition of a long-term internet user and establish symbols as basis for identification. By engaging with mainstream cultural material and elements of online subcultures through staged photography, I aim to highlight relatable struggles of the digital experience symptomatic of modern youth's formation.

Ultimately, my work seeks to illuminate the darker aspects of our digital lives, suggesting that it's only by exploring these depths that we can hope to find clarity and light.