Monday, September 19, 2011

Sean Twiddy Exhibition: "Far Summers: Journey In the Greater World"

Sep. 23 – Oct. 07, 2011

Dewberry Gallery of SCAD | 1545 Peachtree St., Suite 225, Atlanta, Ga.

Sean's thesis explores the plausibility of the monoculture as portrayed in fiction literature, movies and games: "The monoculture is a concept prevalent throughout the science fiction and fantasy genres.
In various media incarnations, the monoculture is a common tool to introduce audiences to aliens,
soldiers, and strange species. In a monoculture, all members of a given group, be it species, race,
nation, religion, and so on are universally characterized in a narrowly defined manner. All share
the same culture, regardless of any external factors.
Nearly all characters within such groups act, look, and think the same, with little if any
deviation. Creators depict individuals within the group as nearly identical, regardless of the size
of the population of the group, or the area it occupies. Members of monocultures all enjoy the
same things, wear the same clothes, speak the same way, and in most cases are effectively
interchangeable to the audience. Individuals represent examples of their group, and inform the
audience about all others of their group. Characters that do not follow this pattern are rare
anomalies, their inclusion in fiction used as a conflict or object lesson."

Mr. Twiddy

The idea of a monoculture was revealed through the eyes of an explorer on the planet Saichen, and we, the viewers, are invited to peruse his journal and meet the various tribes and traditions of the inhabitants:
"This manuscript represents the journal and illustrations of the explorer Osong-Prekana
Pieonten, a kriglani of the Parsephan culture of the planet Siachen. It has been painstakingly
translated from the Parsephan language. All text in his illustrations has also been translated, with
efforts made to maintain the tone of Osong-Prekana’s original manuscript.
Osong-Prekana published his tome under the title “Far Summers: Journey in the Greater
World”. It represented the work of more than 5 years exploration, in which he traveled around
the planet, visiting nearly every major culture. His journals detail contact with the Kingdom of
Ka, the Bosp Leagues, the tribes of the Ingoh, Kolam, and Vouss, Tairo city-states, the Epailo
Kingdom, Fuso’olon, Halasha’fono, and several other nations. In additional, he was a naturalist of
advanced thinking for his culture, illustrating numerous animals, plants, and fungus (or at least
Siachen’s effective equivalents) in the lands he visited."