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The Sustainable Nature of New Jersey
Henry S. Horn
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
My altered ego, J. Chester Farnsworth, after dissecting his first defunct computer, was impressed with how much its innards looked like a miniature housing development or industrial complex. Since the early 1980s, Farnsworth has been dumpster-diving for computer parts, and embedding them in model-railroad-train-scenery to make satirical comments about environmental issues and attitudes. He also uses them to decorate fraudulent sacred relics from art, literature, religion, and the history of computer technology. "The Sustainable Nature of New Jersey" collects several old and new works to pose the implicit question of just what might be the ‘Nature’ that New Jersey will ultimately ‘Sustain.’ Farnsworth has had many local exhibits, and he dreams of being discovered by the gallery owner who can make him into a critically acclaimed and financially solvent Fine Artist. Maybe he should start by illustrating an OIT calendar or the jackets of books about or using information technology. A major work-in-progress is accumulating low-altitude aerial photographs to match about a hundred of his computer-collage landscapes. I’ll bet you can hardly wait!