Trecartin believes technology is unleashing latent human potential. And he looks forward to a time when people no longer distinguish between their technology and their humanity. Characteristically, he is already half living that future. “I think technology is us, not something we invented,” he says. “I think we are more psychic now because we have cell phones and you can look and see who’s calling you. When people start seeing technology as us, as humanity, our whole idea of what existence is, is going to shift. I feel with these movies that you can explore all these nuances and details in the culture, so you can see them and not just let them wash over you.”
In Trecartin’s thinking, apparent opposites dwell on a common plane. “Things like high-low, in-out, even irony and sincerity, they all inhabit the same space,” he says. “They don’t exist in different logics.” He views himself as a transitional figure. “It was so cool being young in the Nineties, with all these questions of ‘What is real?’ in the mainstream media,” he says. “My generation is always wanting to talk about that transition and where it’s taking us today. But people who totally grew up on the Internet, say after ’88, are going to be looking at what we do in the same way I’m looking at drag and thinking, What are they doing? Or, I know what they’re doing. But why are they doing it?”
