Connected Off the Grid explores a collection of people living the new American dream, a population that is plugged in and plugged out of society at the same time. The last two generations have been striving to build bigger, better, stronger, and faster, but at a dangerous cost to the environment and society. At the end of the day, the dream is not always the cookie cutter house, the nine-to-five workdays, the fancy car, or the repetition of the daily routine. A hidden number of people have decided to take a step back and reside alternatively, giving up the ideal of having the typical “McMansion” lifestyle. As this assembly of people find alternative housing, they can’t help but carry a piece of technology that has made life easier to connect to their friends and family or their careers. It seems this group has found the balance between staying connected and disconnected at the right times and has learned to log off the Wifi and put the smartphone down to engage in real life.
Rachel Bujalski started the Connected Off the Grid project in Southern California, traveling through high desert, national forests, city marinas, and coastal and mountain towns, and continues her search of those who go off-the- grid, but remain connected using recognizable technology in a variety of innovative ways.
During the day, Connected Off the Grid can be viewed on monitors inside the ICP Museum and during evening hours, images are literally “projected” onto the windows of the ICP Museum; they can be viewed from the sidewalk outside the Museum and are most visible after sunset.
About the Artist
Rachel Bujalski is a photographer and filmmaker based out of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work largely examines the lifestyles and personalities of people living on the fringes of society that make up American culture today. Her work has been published in National Geographic, Vice, Wired, and many others. In 2015, her Connected Off the Grid project joined the Story Institute, an international visual storytelling distribution platform.
