Abstract
This thesis addresses my work as an artist and defines it in the context of the following subjects: first, a brief historical overview of disaster, specifically, the shift from supernatural to empirical interpretations of disaster and the subsequent emergence of big data. Second, I further explore our changing relationship to the environment in relation to satellite technologies such as Google Earth. Next, I discuss the constructed nature of maps and how they inform our understanding of place. I further elaborate on the power of maps by illustrating how their disruption can alter how we see and imagine the world, in particular, our notions of borders in reference to disaster areas. Lastly, I discuss disaster as an event that transgresses the pliable divides between nature and culture. Throughout the text, I contextualize my art practice by discussing artists that share my interest in using a scientific visual vocabulary to investigate nature. I also use my personal experience with wildfire to make explicit my interest in the disconnect that occurs between sensorial experience and quantified record in reference to environmental disaster.