removed
Image: "Rooftop Swimmer" 2018, Hanoi, Vietnam - See more of this work at www.removed.social/asean-portfolio
REMOVED published in this piece about digital detox and screen health by Austrian blog https://www.activebeauty.at/bewusst-machen/gesundheit/digital-wellbeing-eric-pickersgill
I am thrilled to announce that three photographs from Removed are on display in the exhibition "Hello, Robot. Design between man and machine" at The Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
Click here for more information about the exhibition.
The exhibition was curated by Amelie Klein (Vitra Design Museum), Thomas Geisler, Marlies Wirth (MAK) and Fredo de Smet (design museum Gent, consultant curator) The curators were supported by an international advisory board. Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling belongs to him as well as the design researcher Gesche Joost, the Turin architect and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab Carlo Ratti, the media expert Sabine Himmelsbach and the cultural and media scientist Paul Feigelfeld.
After the Vitra Design Museum debut the exhibition will travel internationally for several years-
February 11 to 14 May 2017: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
June 21 to 1 October 2017: MAK, Vienna
October 27, 2017 - April 14, 2018: Design museum Gent
May 12 to November 4 2018 Gewerbemuseum Winterthur
More destinations TBA
Fellow Columbia College Chicago Alum Cocar Barton-Wooty Woo with his beautiful family visiting my work at the Vitra Design Museum exhibition #hellorobot. The work will travel to Vienna and Gent later this year!
As always, thank you to the team at Rick Wester Fine Art for handling all of the logistics that made this exhibition possible!
I have to thank curator Francois Cheval for being not just an irreplaceable figure in the world of historical and contemporary photography but for also being so warm and welcoming and supportive of my work. He found Removed like so many others online and immediately reached out to me with an invitation to exhibit the series in Lianzhou, China. Francois is the kind of photography lover who oozes with passion and excitement over images.
I was fortunate enough to be invited to China for the exhibition and festival and to spend time with Francois and his team which turned out to be a trip of a lifetime. I spent late nights singing at the KTV and making new friends, all of which were gathering to celebrate the incredible Lianzhou Foto Festival.
++FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE++
Removed is a series about device use that came from a very personal place. Making the photographs was a way for me to confront and analyze the changes I was seeing in the lives around me. The work going viral made evident that noticing this shift was universal.
As the creator of this series, I still find it difficult to partition my device use from my personal and family time. I knew there had to be a product out there that would help my family, friends, and supporters of my work regain control over where and when we use our smartphones.
A few months ago I began a dialogue with Aaron Zar, the founder of Silent Pocket. His line of patented soft goods serves the dual purpose of keeping your digital information safe as well as helping users to disconnect from their devices. Sliding your device into a Silent Pocket Faraday Sleeve blocks all incoming messages, emails, wifi, etc. which allows you to “Mind The Grid” as their slogan simply states. This feels different than powering the device down and allows you to quickly and fully engage with the individuals or tasks that are right in front of you.
I am excited to announce my partnership with Silent Pocket as we release the limited edition run of the REMOVED.SOCIAL Cell Phone Faraday Sleeve. I've been using mine at home while with my family and even while working on location so that I can be fully engaged in making my photographs. I am thrilled to see the launch of this product as I know it will positively impact the lives and relationships of so many people around the world!
Click here for technical and purchase info about the REMOVED.SOCIAL Faraday Sleeve by Silent Pocket
Two more days until my TEDxPantheonSorbonne video is available online!
Texting Scooterist, 2016
Swelling Seine Selfie Stick, 2016
Selfie with Jim Morrison, 2016
Myself with Kay Tuttle, Mike Collins, and Laurie Schorr at the WFAE station in Spirit Square, Charlotte, NC on Friday January 8th, 2016.
I was asked to join Kay Tuttle (Executive Director) and Laurie Schorr (Director of Education and Community Engagement) at The Light Factory to speak about the organization and it's programming. We launched into a deeper conversation about the future of photography and it's role in society today. The first half of the conversation is with famed National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. You can listen to the segment here.
I am sitting here feeling the weight of the very thing I have questioned in this work. My inbox has been flooded with requests to use images from Removed for several stories all across the globe. This knot tumbles about my stomach while I think about the enormous numbers of people who are looking at the work in this very moment. I see the contradiction in all of this. I also embrace it. The work is not to damn the use of devices although I think many of us have that feeling regularly. I know its importance as well as its disfunction and like many operate in that odd dissonance that humans are capable of achieving.
This post is not to defend the work, rather to introduce the new home for it. With the upcoming wave of interest I have been advised to create a space for the work to live. This is that space.
Thank you,
Eric
