Nostalgia for Neverwas
Joseph Farbrook

In his work, Joseph Farbrook explores the mirages we create for each other and the limits of virtuality. By recontextualizing reality from the viewpoint of a virtual environment, he de-familiarizes and destabilizes the everyday illusions that, because they have become so commonplace, are no longer visible.

Nostalgia for Neverwas is a mixture of old and new technologies and styles. It is a joining and a recombinant hybrid of a fictionalized past and an idealized future. As we find ourselves immersed in turbulence and uncertainty, perhaps sleepless with anxiety, one may feel a pull toward a seemingly weightless past, a simpler time that moved at a pace slower and more comprehensible. As the wavy lines clear and the focus sharpens, it emerges that this past is so edited and revised, that if the same were to be applied to the present, there would be a longing only for this moment.

About the Artist
Joseph Farbrook grew up in New York City and Santa Fe, raised by his father, a concrete poet and his mother, a painter. Farbrook attended the University of Colorado focusing on performance and narrative, where he wrote electronic music, poetry and fiction. Becoming interested in a more immersive approach to narrative, he began using computers and the Internet as creative media. Subsequently discovered by the art department, he was offered a fellowship to pursue an MFA in digital art. Working in a visual arts environment, Farbrook began creating electronic installations, interactive video and virtual reality narratives. He also experimented with media-reflexive live performances mixed with interactive screen projections. Farbrook is presently an Assistant Professor of interactive media and game development at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

farbrook.net