Derek Lerner

Statement

My work explores systems: their creation, use and control.

In 1994 I became interested in human interaction with technology and nonlinear information. Much of my work that followed dealt with the internet and code. My investigations made me increasingly intrigued with the relationships between perception and coded language. I began to explore the organization and chaos of complex systems, including tax evasion, the metaverse, money laundering, sock puppets and astroturfing, identity theft, the technological singularity, and most recently waste, urbanism, pathogens and poisons. My interpretations of these kinds of information spaces are motivated by my daily visual intake and life experiences.

Power, information, misinformation, semantics, sociology, counter-culture/over the counter culture, identity, order, code, crime, consumerism, economics- these are the topics that drive my thinking and the production of my work.