Brooklyn-based photographers Andrea Orejarena and Caleb Stein explore the diminishing line between fact and fiction in their ongoing collaborative project, “American Glitch.” Responding to the current era of information overload—defined by screens, conspiracy theories, and the advent of the Metaverse—the pair set out in search of visual allegories that suggest we are living in a simulation. After scouring the internet for evidence of these “glitches” in the landscape and confirming their existence via Google Earth, they took to the road in a series of trips to locate the scenes in real life. 

Drawing from social media and reddit threads where people post “evidence of glitches in real life,” films like The Matrix and The Truman Show, and government declassified documents, “American Glitch” brings together large format photographs and wallpaper grids of found glitches sourced from the internet. According to Orejarena and Stein, “this multifaceted approach to installation reflects our continued interest across different bodies of work in opening up a wide range of conceptions of authorship and understanding how the self relates to, and navigates, collective structures.” 

“American Glitch'”will be published by Gnomic Book in 2024, coinciding with a solo exhibition at PALO Gallery in New York. See more from the series below!