Letter

Letter to the South, 2006, mixed media

A Thomas Jefferson atomaton powering solar robots with flashlights. The head turns towards the viewers when they enter they gallery space.

Working Together to Serve You Better, 2003, ants, electronics, motors, dirt, plastic, food

I don't think the efforts of people (such as myself) working in modern cities are fully appreciated (even by me).  Truthfully, I don't think the combined efforts of humanity are properly appreciated by anybody.  Every building, vegetable, magazine, computer, and toy represents the accrued lives of vast numbers of mental and physical laborers thoughout history. Each of these creations is the tip of a colossal iceberg of history. But we will use them and then dispose of them, like our hair and fingernails, or any of the other tools we used to borrow from the natural world. We will purchase them, eat them, read them, stand on them, break them, throw them away, bury them, and forget about them.  And then maybe dig them up again and proffer them for sale or spectacle.

My business is reworking the designs of dead architects, engineers, and designers.  I build electromechanical devices that orchestrate sound and movement. I also incorporate organic elements that have their own clocks and programs to respond to and initiate change within their systems. I place these systems in vessels made from fabricated and found containers. This is my way of cleaning up after millions of generations of billions of slobs. Although I suppose that I am really not cleaning up, just rearranging.

Subordinates, 2004, needle felted wool, electronics, motors, plastic

Are we not monstrous? We extend our bodies and perception into outer space, virtual space, and medicated stupors. We become larger by inhabiting vehicles and buildings. We make monsters of other living things like, cattle and pets, breeding and engineering them into food and companions.

This work explores the murky borders between technology and biology. They are alchemic experiments that portray both my attraction and repulsion with scientific trophies and prosthetic disasters. I choose to exploit the confusion surrounding what is considered cognitive or instinctual, living or nonliving, animated or stationary.

We Love to Make Mistakes, 2002, Spandex, electronics, servo motors, plastic

This robotic installation uses feedback and an algorithmic program to generate organic movement. There are five improvisational robots that sample light from sensors at the ends of wire. As the wire flexes new readings are taken and new movements are triggered to complete the loop. All of the parts of this installation are scattered along the floor and only move when people are present. There are also half tuned TVs that are placed around the improvisers as additional sources of variable light input.