Mark Dorf’s image series “Axiom & Simulation” studies the way humans quantify and explore their surroundings by artistic, scientific and digital means.

Notes about this project: ^[1]

Take for example a three-dimensional rendering of a mountainside. While observing the rendering, it holds a similar form to what we see in nature but has no physical connection to reality—it is merely a file on a computer that has no mass and only holds likeness to a memory. When translating the rendering into binary code, we see just 1’s and 0’s—a file creating the representation from a language composed of only two elements that have no grounding in the natural world. After all of these transformations, a new reality is created—one without an original referent, a copy with no absolute source. When comparing these simulations and interpretations of our landscape within a single context or picture plane, ideas of accuracy, futility, and original experience arise.

1. "Axiom & Simulation." Dorfphoto.net. Retrieved on July 21st, 2012.

Photos © Mark Dorf

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