Metroscope2000®

Statement

Metroscope2000® is a project that puts my work in a transmedia state; utilizing several layers of media to create a believable realm for this impossible telescope to exist. The telescope itself is a prototype of an omniscient telescope, one that penetrates time and space to bring the user relevant viewing material. The project has different points of access to maximize usership: websites, users manuals, print material, physical products, documentaries, etc. They will all tell the story of this unique device and further embed its reality via virtual reality.

This work in progress began in December 2017, and has a projected range of completion into 2020. It will build upon my growing realm of alternate realities and is an integral component to my Art Story and touches on anxieties associated with the commodification of art.

The Metroscope2000® product line is a component in my expanding Republitex™ transmedia narrative. Re­publitex™ is a fictional conglomerate that preys on America's sense of patriotism and nostalgia in order to provoke consumers into buying their products. The Metroscope2000® line, which includes Metroscope2000® Kids!, Retroscope2000®, Metroscope2000® Boutique, and Metroscope2000® Deepfield, is a collection of omniscient telescopes that present undeniable truths to the user. It is the first autonomous telescope run on Republitex™ powerful (and patented) AI, and releases its user from the overwhelming dread of viewing our Universe unaided.

The Metroscope2000®'s Summer 2018 Expo takes place at Skelf Site London, UK, Five Years Gallery London, UK, and The Wassaic Project's Summer Exhibition: Change of State in Wassaic, New York where visitors can see and interact with the prototype. Visit www.Republitex.com for more information and useful products.

• Metroscope2000® Kids!
• Video
• 2018

Metroscope2000® Kids!

Metroscope2000® Kids! is a physical prototype of the omniscient telescope and challenges America's culture of borrowed nostalgia and sense of generational superiority. The telescope has two eyepieces at each end that peers into the body of the device and views a TV screen showing children's commer­cials, one for every year from 1988 and 2018 (my current lifetime). It questions a Millenial's love of 90's television by separating toy commercials by gender, a division that we absorb but never ad­dress. We find that the commercials become larger and larger, blurrier and distorted the closer to the present they get. This reflects pseudo-nostalgic feelings that we use to sell more products to ourselves, an unending cycle that has kept all generations bound to the spending cycle. The website created for and hosted by Skelf Site, UK emphasizes this end, and makes an interactive environ­ment for the user to feel that tingle of Nickelodeonicity.