Archive of Rot: Time and Memory Through a Neurodivergent Lens — Paige Lee Miller

Texas-born and London-based interdisciplinary artist Paige Lee Miller confronts the overstimulated condition of contemporary life in her ongoing installation project, Archive of Rot.

First presented as part of American Bacchanal (12–15 February, London), a group exhibition examining American identity through the lens of decadence and excess, Archive of Rot positions compulsive overstimulation as a modern iteration of imperialism. Not of land or labour, but of attention.

The work externalises what Miller calls the “internet-addled mind,” confronting the phenomenon often described as brain rot. Layered prints form a disjointed catalogue of memory, only to be intermittently interrupted by projections that mimic the rhythm of a digital feed. The result is immersive and uneasy.

“Layered prints, functioning as a catalogue of disjointed memory, are drowned out by intermittent projections reminiscent of a fresh hit of content.”

The installation consists of a mixed media photo collage made from inkjet prints on muslin, mulberry paper, transparency film and cardstock, accompanied by video projection. The imagery spans Miller’s personal photographic archive, from family photos to earlier fine art work, combined with abstracted, light-painted and long-exposure photographs. Images repeat throughout the collage like echoes hovering between recognition and distortion.

The prints themselves are built through repetitive cycles of scanning and reprinting. Some are transferred from muslin onto cardstock and peeled away, leaving faint residual traces. Others hang a few inches from the wall in front of their transfer counterparts, creating dimensional layers that appear fused from afar but can be separated and handled up close.

Touch is not discouraged, it is invited.

As viewers sift through the suspended layers between projections, the archive slowly deteriorates. Prints crease, soften and fade. The act of viewing becomes an act of erosion. Rather than preserving for permanence, Archive of Rot sacrifices longevity for intimacy.

The projection interrupts this fragile material world. Composed of snippets from years of Miller’s iPhone footage, it mimics an endless scroll. The screen becomes both spectacle and sedative.

“This act, followed by the projection’s return, performs the cycle of compulsive overstimulation: the mind grasps for clarity only to recoil at discomfort, dousing itself with distraction to bury the rot. The fix, however, is temporary. The rot will resurface.”

Within the framework of American Bacchanal, the work reframed overstimulation as a contemporary American excess. A saccharine gloss layered over decay. An imperialism of attention.

Informed by Miller’s own experience with neurodivergence, the installation explores subjective temporality shaped by time-blindness, monotropism and memory processing differences. These phenomena, while common in neurodivergent experience, increasingly resonate with younger generations navigating chronically online lives.

If the prints measure time materially, the projection collapses it. Memory, anticipation and present-tense distraction coexist. For Miller, the digital realm offers a false permanence, while the physical archive visibly decays. The work insists on both realities at once.

A continuation of Archive of Rot, combining deteriorated prints from the first installation with new works, will be shown on 17 March at Photobook Cafe in London.

Paige Lee Miller’s practice bridges photography, video and projection to explore fractured temporalities in the digital age. After working as a production and photo assistant to Mark Seliger in New York, she moved to the UK in 2023 to complete an MA at London College of Fashion. She now works across fine art, fashion and music photography, and is also a photographer at the Victoria & Albert Museum, documenting objects from the collection including prints, transparencies, costumes and textiles.

With Archive of Rot, Miller does not attempt to repair the internet-addled mind. Instead, she makes its cycles visible. 

Tangible. Vulnerable to touch.

Website:
https://paigeleemiller.com

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/paigeleemiller