Illuminated - Infinite Scroll
"And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you..."
Late at night, the writer, audio artist and sleep-deprived parent of a newborn, Ross Sutherland, is staring into infinity...
"Usually, my phone becomes my window into a bigger world. Not just bigger- endless. Unmeasurably vast. You can scroll social media feeds forever and never hit the bottom of the chasm. I know it's objectively bad for me but I can’t stop myself. I'm craving endlessness- I need space! Vast, endless interior space... to compensate for the smallness of my waking days."
Sinking into the infinite scroll of his phone (a web design technique - created to encourage addiction as your webpage never ends...) he weaves a woozy, funny, adventurous audio essay through sonic experiments, illusions and mirror worlds that invite us to reckon with the infinite.
Including archive from ReThinking with Adam Grant 'Aza Raskin on why technology – and democracy– are in an imagination crisis' (courtesy of TED).
Original music composed by Jeremy Warmsley
Written and produced by Ross Sutherland
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
Published on Sunday, 1st September 2024.
Available Podcasts from Illuminated
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