Degree selected depictions of agricultural scenes and landscapes from a book in Elsewhere's Museum of Natural History called Our Wonder World and stitched them together digitally to make two scrolling panoramas. 1915, the year the book was published, was an era of faith in technology, progress, and optimism for the developments of the future. The companion videos serve as a meditation on how ideas about nature are produced and mediated over time.
Kristen DeGree lives in Iowa City, Iowa and is currently working towards a MFA in intermedia arts and printmaking. She was raised in North Dakota, where she developed an interest in landscapes, agriculture, and the quest for autonomy. She is interested in ferments: biotic, political, artistic and otherwise. Though she probably came to artmaking much earlier through the kitchen, she was officially drawn to art through printmaking: the collaborative environment of the print shop with its methods for spreading information cheaply and efficiently. Her love for print has more recently led to an intuitive shift towards video, sound, and social practice. She often works in collaboration with others, and is currently preoccupied by the language of the future.
