Junkspace
Junkspace
By Valia Russo
The concept of “Junkspace” was introduced by architect and theorist Rem Koolhaas in his essay Junkspace (2001). These are generic, undifferentiated, uniform and repetitive places, often created by globalization and rapid urbanization. The junkspace is characterized by its heterogeneous aesthetic, its lack of coherence and unified style. It is often filled with cheap materials, superficial decorative elements and ephemeral technologies. Koolhaas described the junkspace as an environment that affects human perception and experience in a diffused and depersonalized way. It is often designed to manipulate and direct people’s behaviour, driving them to consume more without offering any real spatial or aesthetic quality.
In this series titled Junkspace, photographs of these spaces are over-produced to feed a large image bank. In a second phase of post-production, this raw material is transformed using the automatic tools and artificial intelligence of retouching software. Photoshop automatically selects elements according to the images to form hybrid and misshapen assemblages. The final composition is shaped by the way the AI reads the photographs in a kind of collaboration. This work explores the notions of undesirability, anomaly, artificiality and monstrosity of these residual spaces. It examines how today’s environment, both physical and virtual, has become a space, cluttered with signs, symbols and images that often make no sense and conflict with one another.
Valia Russo graduated with a Master’s degree in photography from the School National Superior of Photography of Arles (2022) and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Central Saint Martins School in London (2019). Currently an artistin-resident at the Orion Tower in Montreuil, through his work he explores the intersections of photography, sculpture, video, and installation. Russo is both a creator and collector of images, producing his own photographs while reusing existing images. His research focuses on the production, circulation and consumption of images, as well as their hybridization in the context contemporary economic and social, exploring also, the magical aspects attributed to them.
This artwork is presented in collaboration with Capture Photography Festival and InTransit BC.
