Friday, March 6, 2015

Responding to Heidegger artist statement


Artist Statement
I was originally inspired to make this work like that of Tinguely, work that is designed to ultimately destroys itself. One of the challenges of designing a piece that will destroy itself is that of the timing, whether the piece will break instantly or take a great deal of time to wear out. It was discussed that there could be an interesting dynamic if the audience could work interact with it or if the project would die at a random time, which means it would be possible for it to die without anyone in the gallery. I decided to bring both into the construction of the work and in our in progress critique it wasn’t that well received. The work was annoying for a great deal of people and the interactivity only allowed them to turn it on or off, which most just turned it off. So with taking in some suggestions, the point of the piece took a turn. I decided to make the piece entirely for audience participation. I replaced LEDs with buttons that activated one of three buzzers, three buttons were wired with resistors, three were not. 
This project was built in response to Heidegger and his essay on the essence of technology. Heidegger mentions that humans aren’t using technology in a way that would benefit all of humanity, we are taking its potential for granted and wasting it on things that aren't necessary. With this idea I made a device with its only purpose being to burn out and stop working. After the in progress critique I decided to tweak this response a bit. I am still responding to the idea that we are wasting technologies potential, instead of a device made to fail, its a device for purely entertainment purposes. Something that is so simple but also made for the entertainment of others.


My materials were chosen based on availability but also on something I could keep clean and presentable, something that would give my work a finished feeling. I found an old first aid kit container that I decided to use as the case for all my electrical components. I wanted to keep the interface very straightforward, clean and simple. I had to stick with a similar layout in-between corrections in order to keep the all of the same holes where they were. Button colors were chosen on which connection it was making, relay or no relay. Everything was powered from a six volt batter pack. 

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