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Migration

Video from Site-Specific Installation and Pigmented Inkjet Print
at the paper machine of the former Jaite Paper Mill at Cuyahoga Valley National Park
2014

Migration is a site specific installation at the paper machine of the now defunct Jaite Paper Mill. Using over 25 pounds of Dow Corning’s 3179 dilatant silicone compound, the newsprint of a New York Times newspaper is transferred to this unstable surface, only to have it left unprotected and physically altered before our eyes.

In recent developments of the newspaper industry’s difficulty with adapting to the digital age and its struggle to survive, the business of printed media is set to compete with the online platform. For centuries, the newspaper industry evolved into a larger, successful, sustainable way of making a profit, and its journalists were still paid comfortably well. This system rode on for a very long time, until online media contributed to the many ways of receiving our news, but with the difference of cost. That, and just like the Jaite Paper Mill, had to compete with another entity that was larger and featured newer equipment that made it more sustainable with its mission, but with the sacrifice of the once highly-functional dominate, means of production.