Joosep Kivimäe

• Programming abundance
• Tutor: Marge Monko
• Room installation, 800 × 640 mm lightbox, 45-degree angled 800 × 640 mm lightbox, 24-photo 35mm slide projection loop

We buy more things if they are in abundance. The psychology of abundance, characterised by the inability to save or the lack of awareness that resources are finite, contributes to the emergence of scarcity. When we experience abundance, for example, we often cannot save money or time. This, in turn, creates a scarcity of resources, both in terms of personal and shared resources.

Given that most of the world’s freshwater is used for food production, handling and processing, it is quite dystopian, that studies show on average, a third of whole food production is wasted. The “mirror of abundance” used in retail describes this situation aptly. The dysfunctional system illusively creates the abundance that actually already exists, thereby losing more than winning.

The room installation consists of two light boxes, one of which protrudes from the wall at a 45-degree angle and the second one is on the wall next to it. Inside the angled lightbox you will find a photo of a large fruit and vegetable shelf with mirrors which is photographed according to the rule of thirds. The space between the light boxes is connected by a 35mm slide projection loop, where a series of still lifes images are displayed, which compares different food articles bought in the store against others that are found in the trash during dumpster diving. All of the products are located in the background of a diagram that explains the logic behind shelf display.