Joseph Farbrook

Joseph Farbrook is an American multi-media artist who creates animation combined with real-life objects and virtual reality machinima. He is currently a professor at the Worchester Polytechnic Institute. Farbrook's work focuses on the effects that technology and virtual reality have on the way humans think. Many of his projects are surreal twists on everyday objects, for example a coffee grinder.

Medium Grind (2008)

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This work likely represents the idea of a person waking up in the morning to his coffee and turning on his TV to see news of carnage around the world. Most of Farbrook's works suggest similar ideas. Many are much more warped and surreal, as in the case of "Simuclara."

Screenshot from Simuclara (2004)

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The work explores the ways that video games and virtual reality distort our ideas of reality, showing us familiar objects like houses and cows but warping them over with unnerving images and suggestions. 

"Oftentimes, playing a long session with a videogame, especially a first-person-shooter, can make one feel that there will be danger lurking around every corner. Sudden movements trigger an emotional rise and an adrenaline surge. The activity of the videogame temporarily leaks into reality." - Farbrook

I find Farbrook's work both unpleasant and fascinating. He is not afraid to make his viewers somewhat uncomfortable with both the images and the ideas he presents to them. They often have a don't-want-to-look-but-can't-look-away quality to them. I think this makes his messages very effective. I can't find very many things to critique from what I've seen of his work. What I might critique is that at times his work treads too far into the manipulative side without giving sufficient emotional payoff.

Sources:

http://rhizome.org/profiles/farbrook/

http://farbrook.net/