The project gets its name from a repetitive strain injury caused by dropping your head forward while looking down at a mobile device. The episodic video follows nine individuals as they navigate new ways of interacting, communicating and living in the age of the Smartphone.

Through humor, physical empathy and emotion, Text Neck offers opportunity, through multiple installation components, for the audience to engage directly in the behaviors developing in tandem with Smartphone technology.

Text Neck grew organically out of collaboration and improvisation. By interviewing forty people about their Smartphone habits, collecting ideas, and anecdotes, David Politzer and his community collaborators created scene outlines; some with a developed narrative, others open-ended questions, “What if we did this?” The result is both a cautionary tale and a love letter to the Smartphone.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

David Politzer makes artworks about the awkward relationships we form when we communicate using cameras, phones, computers, etc. Not just between people, also between people and the natural world.

Politzer was born in Washington DC, earned an MFA from Syracuse University and a BS from Skidmore College. His solo exhibitions include those at the Museum of Northern Arizona, Artsoace (NC), Artspace (CT), Real Art Ways (CT), Lawndale Art Center, Houston Center for Photography, Galveston Art Center and Western Georgia University. He is the recipient of the 2011 Carol Crow Fellowship from the Houston Center for Photography. Group show and screening venues include the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the El Paso Museum of Art, the Masur Museum (LA), NUTUREArt (NY) Threewalls (IL) the Soap Factory (MN), Southern Exposure (CA), Vox Populi (PA), the Syracuse International Film Festival, SPACES (OH), video_dumbo (NY) and Gallery Korea (NY). Politzer was artist in residence at Yaddo, the Skowhegan School, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Roswell Artist in Residence, the Museum of Northern Arizona, Lawndale Art Center, Artspace (NC) and Grand Central Art Center. He lives in Houston, TX with his wife and daughter. He is currently Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Media at the University of Houston.