A multi-sensory mixed media art installation that explores the transition from analog to digital life and how social and digital media have altered the way we experience and relate to one another and ourselves.

About the Images

From the top Left to right:

• Immigration, 2016, site specific installation on plywood panels. Collected VHS, audio cassettes, computer hardware,  approx. 96 x 288 inches, contact artist for pricing
• COMFORTER (Like me), 2016, digital collage on twin duvet cover by Shutterfly, approx. 70 x 90", limited edition series of 100. $375 each.
• IGNORE ME, NOTICE ME, 2016, digital collage on vinyl by Vistaprint, 48 x 48" each,  $580 set/$300 each. Also available as limited edition (100) prints in multiple sizes. Contact artist for more information. 
• FEED (Alone, together), hardwood dinette set, latex primer, adhesive, printed social media paper collage, sealant; $1070
• Eat your media flatware, 2016, collage on flatware, $100 per set
• Eat your media dishware, 2016, (Four place settings), collage on porcelain, $200 each
• Eat your media serving bowls I & II, 2016, Glass bowls, printed & manipulated social media feed, Sizes vary, $55 small bowl, $65 large bowl
• Drink your media, 2016, drinking glasses, glycerin, gelatin, social media "pulp", $75 single/$200 set of four
• TMI SERIES Prints 1-5, 2016, Google search digital collage, 144 x 36 inches each, $780 each
  • 1,160,000 (dishwashing liquid)
  • 37,400,000 (pink sunsets with dolphins)
  • 50,900,000 (Emojis speak louder than words)
  • 435,000,000 (rice)
  • 2,150,000,000 (war)
• FACE Book, 2016, Profile pictures of all the Artist’s Facebook “Friends” As of March 5, 2016. Mounted with archival photo splits on acid free paper. 13.75 x 12.5 x 2.5 inches. $575      To look inside, click here.
• Search engine, Readymade antique dictionary c. 1904, $195
• The Visit (talk with your voice not your fingers), 2016, Two swivel chairs, one cocktail table, and participant instructions, $195
• #no one is listening to me, Digital Immigrant soundscape, 10 min. 40 sec.,  $25 for mp3 download, Limited edition reproductions available.

Press for Digital Immigrant

Artist Statement

I first came across the term “digital immigrant” while watching Digital Nation, a PBS Frontline production. The term was coined and popularized by education consultant Marc Prensky back in 2001. As a digital immigrant I have a fond memories of pre-digital days, life before cell phones and the Internet. I danced to records and made mix tapes for friends. Eventually I got a CD player and a Hotmail account. You know the rest.

 The main ideas for the work in Digital Immigrant came in an unusual way- essentially all at once. I woke up one morning and began sketching. In retrospect I believe that I was satisfying a need to process my observations and mixed feelings about the influence of digital technology and social media on my life. Digital life feels frenetic, intense, and unrelenting. So I created intensely present physical objects that also transmit feelings of intensity (both good and bad) and overwhelm (or abundance, depending upon your perspective). I intended to “real-ize” the observations I’d been making of others and myself, like how I choose my devices over people more than I care to admit, and I use technology as a from of escapism.

The use of digital tech to produce and promote this exhibition was intentional. My emphatic aversion to and avoidance of computers in my studio practice was the first obstacle to overcome. I still have a decided preference for “real” art tools & materials. But for this project I worked almost exclusively on the computer and worked with internet-based vendors. I used the objects of my criticism and scrutiny to perform those very acts. This creates a self-contained and introspective quality in the work that I value. Though I’ve not decided whether to further pursue digital art making, I know that it has a permanent place in how I share my art, whatever it’s made of.

Click here for NPR story on Instagram likes and reward centers in the brain. 

Kristen M. Watson explores her own transition (immigration) from analog to digital life through interactive, multi-sensory mixed media assemblage, large-scale digital prints, and installation pieces that create a “digital-real” environment. By manipulating electronic material and exploiting methods that exist solely due to digital technology she addresses themes of presence and distraction, paralysis of choice, decontextualization of information, temporality and permanence, and the physical & emotional addiction to social validation. Watson creates a visually compelling comment on the influence of digital technology on human relationships and the self.

This exhibition is a Vermont Arts Council Vermont Arts 2016 featured event. Click on the banner below to learn more.