"August Highland conceived "The Paradise Effect" project in 2007 in anticipation of John Milton's 400th birthday. Highland had been considering a project like this since his highly successful show in New York in 2006. At that time, he exhibited a series of 20 large-scales works, each of which was devoted to a single literary figure. Works by Shakespeare, John Milton, Virgil and Dante, as well as works by modern writers such as Ginsberg and Highland himself were included in the show. The enthusiastic reception of this exhibition led Highland to conceive of producing a comprehensive body of visual work devoted to a single literary figure. August Highland immediately embarked on preparing for "The Paradise Effect" as soon as the first opportunity arose for him to be able to launch such an ambitious project. The opportunity finally came in 2007. Over a 3-year period between 2004 and early 2007, August Highland had exhibited his work in over 30 shows. During this time, he had been amassing a voluminous notebook filled with plans for future projects which he had not been able to implement due to financial pressures, commission work and an exhausting exhibition marathon."
Each body of work in the "Paradise Effect" project is titled after one of the 630 neologisms that John Milton invented in the English language. Milton invented such words as pandemonium, anarchy, ethereal, sublime and satanic. In each series or mix, Highland incorporates the text from Paradise Lost either in whole or part. Frequently, full lines are included, and sometimes partial lines, and sometimes a combination of the two. In some mixes, only the individual words from Paradise Lost are incorporated, and sometimes fragments of words. There are also mixes in which Highland combines the text from Paradise Lost with text from other sources, such as the keywords that internet users are searching for on Google and other search engines.
In former periods of August Highland's career as a visual/text artist, he has made use of a diversity of text sources in his work, ranging from the profane to the sublime. With regards to the profane, he has mined his text materials from explicit adult literature. Sublime sources have ranged from religious texts to classical literary works. In 2005, Highland also achieved success with an exhibition of works based on the Human Genome Project.
The visual works that August Highland has created based on Paradise Lost never fail to inspire excitement and praise in those who are familiar with his work and in those who encounter his work for the first time. In his customary modest fashion, Highland attributes the prolific and inspired works of perfection that he has produced for the "Paradise Effect" to Milton's incomparable masterpiece of epic poetry. "Paradise Lost is a towering literary wonder created by a towering literary genius," Highland said in a recent 2008 interview with Gazelle Friedman. "This is the first time in my 17-year career that I have not had to endure periods of creative struggle, like bouts of vacillation or creative block. I know that, in large part, this is owing to the fact that I have selected a text that is so profound and timeless and universal that I have been exceptionally moved and forced to transcend myself, allowing Milton's work to be given a new voice through the new media genre that I have invented. It's my hope that represented in this new style, Milton's Paradise Lost will feed the imagination of the tech-savvy youth of today as well as reanimate the passion for Milton's literary artistry in those who know Paradise Lost and who pride themselves in having the independent mindedness and spiritedness to 'reread' Paradise Lost in the meta-language of the Post-Literary Age."
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