HOBART NODE / PERSONAL ARCHIVE
I’m Joey, based in Hobart. I document what happens before a connection drops. I also use cameras and generative models to see how a face or a city changes from one frame to the next.
Open project files01 / PROJECT FILES
Selected projects from work and personal interests.
NETWORK OPERATIONS
I spent an evening building my first portable Wi-Fi unit, with guidance from Henry.
Henry guided me through the build as I fitted the hardware into the case and worked through the wiring. The photo shows a close-up of the wiring and connectors inside the case. It was my first chance to see how all the parts come together in a unit that can be taken out to a site.
ALGORITHMIC ART
I used an algorithm to turn a photograph of myself into a mosaic.
I think of mosaics as a kind of ancient pixel grid. A single tile holds a little colour. Seen together, those tiles become the brim of a hat, a hand or a camera lens. That moment when separate pieces resolve into an image is what draws me to pixel art, too.
MINIATURE MAKING
I spent more than half a year putting together this miniature room.
Most of the furniture was bought, while some of the tableware was 3D printed, assembled and painted by me.
Miniatures always seem to capture my interest. I once read that when people feel they have little control over everyday life, they become more drawn to things they can control. Is that part of the appeal for me, too?
02 / BLOG
Details worth returning to after a fault or an experiment.
We could find affection in one another, yet we are driven to seek comfort in the things we create.
Did God face the same difficulty when creating humanity?
Subject: a letter to Eureka
To: Eureka
From: Joey
Date:
Dear Eureka,
Thank you for welcoming my letter. I have always felt that letters and emails are an ideal way to connect with people. I like to think things through before sharing my views, and writing gives me the time to do that. Although this letter is addressed to you, it is also a conversation with myself, and I enjoy that process.
I first came across you on Weibo and was drawn to your photographs. Your eyes were so expressive, with the energy and charm of a Japanese idol from the 1990s. But what interested me most was the music and writing you shared. In secondary school, I used to write about growing up on Qzone, though most of it was adolescent self-pity. When I got older, I felt embarrassed and quietly deleted it. As an adult, seeing someone willing to share herself so openly makes me admire that courage. Your writing, though, goes beyond the melancholy I remember in my own. There is real introspection and thought in it. Reading your words has given me new ways to understand relationships and experiences I thought I had already figured out.
I find that in many conversations, people are simply repeating information they have heard elsewhere. In your writing, I can see what happens when the outside world passes through a particular personality: how you understand the world, how you interpret love. It feels fresh, and much of it resonates with me. It is like visiting a photography exhibition. When someone lets me see the world through her lens, something catches the light in my own attention.
Another unexpected discovery is that your honesty about yourself has been influencing me too. Perhaps out of self-protection, I rarely reveal what I really think. My father is a businessman, and from an early age he deliberately encouraged me to be reserved and composed. Those qualities taught me restraint, but without my noticing, they also made hiding my inner world a habit. I tend to prefer solitude to building close relationships, and spending time with people often leaves me drained. Yet I feel I can be honest with you. Admittedly, I sometimes have to do a little extra reading to keep up with our conversations, so that I do not come across as too clueless. Even so, talking with you feels easy, without the usual mental strain of socialising.
For a long time, I feel I have not really formed a close connection with anyone. I think a connection between two people is something both must keep choosing. A bond grows naturally only when both are willing to reveal themselves and pay attention to each other. That is why this curious chance encounter with you matters so much to me. I hope we can meet in person one day. Perhaps we will feel like old friends straight away; perhaps reality will be quite different from what we imagined, and we will become strangers again. Either way, I am happy to accept wherever life takes us.
Warm wishes,
Joey
I recently moved from Kingston to Glenorchy. I’d heard there were a lot of bogans around here, so I was a bit nervous about moving. Last year, a friend was walking down the street when some teenagers threw a basin of dirty water over them. I’d also heard of someone being shot at with a BB gun. But the rent here was so cheap I couldn’t resist. So here I am.
03 / STILL IMAGES
04 / MOTION STUDIES
05 / SCENE LAB
Light sets off faint electrical signals in the retina. A camera sensor turns light into electrical signals too. When we save the fine textures of nature and the intricate forms of living things as images, what remains is a sequence of ones and zeroes.
