Digital Minimalism/Space Invader is part of my ongoing work in low-res digital photography using wristwatch-based digital cameras, such as the Casio WristCam. In this iteration, the images in question from the 3000+ images in the 8 Bits or Less photo collection are made manifest through the creation of laser-etched reliefs in birch wood.

The concept behind Verbotenbilben and Space Invader is the idea of the counter record in the age of paranoia and surveillance. WHile hegemony is allowed to construct its own panopticon from the public commons, the individual can only be empowered by assuming the role of counter-surveillance. In this way, the hegemonic record can be verified by the counter-record of the observed.

The name Space Invader is a double entendre regarding my unhindered visual colonization/"invastion" of public/private space with my wristcam's digital gaze.

The aspect of this body of work (as in DM/Figuratives & DM/Huletts) is its inscription within wood as its primary medium. The low-rez photography is formalized by etching them into birch tiles by using a high-power laser cutter programmed to selectively burn the pixels into the wood proportional to the degree of grayscale in the image. In this way, the images are them made manifest; there is no question of their materiality. The pieces are now burned reliefs of the digital image, their smell reifies their tangibility, and their sepia/black burns refer to the history of photography.

The configurations of the tiles are shown for illustration only; each image is considered as a stand-alone work (framed or unframed), or as pixels in another low-resolution figure (lines, characters like Pac Man or the SPace Invaders, etc.). or as a line that circumnavigates the entire gallery.

Series of print works on paper will be created in Fall 2005 with this method.

This is related to the Verbotenbilden series (as Max Kauffmann), the 8 Bits or Less Video Series, and a large body of other works.