The Smart State is the ‘signature policy’ initiated by the Queensland Government in 2005 with the aim to create ‘a state where knowledge, creativity and innovation can flourish’. This body of work contributes to and comments on the concept of the Smart State. In particular it explores human behaviour in South East Queensland communities through documenting the physical evidence left behind in public spaces. The images function as documents of human occupation, yet they also operate to signify and question emotional experiences and attachments to objects and environments.

This series is informed by Thomas Barrow’s photographic works The Series Cancellations, and The Caulked Reconstructions. He deconstructs the fine print aesthetic by vandalising the photographic object and simultaneously reconstructing new meanings. By using the strategies of disrupting and distorting the print surface, to evoke a sense of the discarded and of marked territory, I transform not only the photographic object but our perception of reality and connectedness to one another.

I invite observers to look closely at the fragments and reflect upon who they are and the world they want to live in.