Three Little Artists

Significant, the number three. The body, the blood, the machine.

Alan Rath

Alan Rath has been working in kinetic sculpture and robotics since the early 1980s. In addition, he produces the programming for his creations to mock complex behaviors, shying away from any repetitive programming. Some machinations develop their behaviors over the course of years. 

Rath embodies the concept that humans are machines, but moreso that machines exhibit human qualities. This is not a sentiment I identify with in my own work, but from Rath's aesthetic I take away the execution in his designs. Specifically, the modular components connected electrically to form a whole allowing for much "real space" in between extend his sense of senses.

The answers to problems of presentation (such as hiding the computing hardware) found in Rath's work are creative as they are relevant to the work itself. Sometimes the computer is built into crude wooden crates, or a shiny metal briefcase, depending on the machination and its properties. 

Tim Hawkinson

No doubt familiar, Tim Hawkinson was introduced to me by the ART21 series. Another sculptural artist, Hawkinson uses fairly simply engineered designs to produce objects of complexity. This is achieved through hand-crafted circuitry by the artist (and likely a small team of people, sometimes too much credit is given to the individual.)

"Emoter" is a favorite piece of mine. By "hacking" and inkjet printer paired with light sensors on a television screen, Hawkinson's own face twists and contorts into different emotions through a series of nineteen randomized "on/offswitches" depending on the light available on the screen. 

What I carry away from Hawkinson's work is, again as with Rath, the sense of the modular. Components. Pieces to a whole. And the very DIY element of rehashing old equipment into something fresh and new to serve the artist's purpose. By playing with commercial tools, breaking their warranties, we take back a little bit of our world from greedy aspirations. 

Williams Delvoye

Oh, William, William, William, William. Bill. Oh, Billy. 

Not everything needs be said. Presenting: 

Cloaca aka The Poop Machine

Crass, I know. I threw this asshole in here though because it is interesting. It's actually a shame the inventor, Billy William Willy, has such an awful explanation for the piece because it's really a marvelous machine. All this "everything is meaningless" nonsense just doesn't have a whole lot to do with the fact that you spent years of your life building a food to poop machine. You cannot tell me that doesn't mean something.

Okay, so if I'm so smart, how would I explain this piece of "art" if it was my baby?

I would say, "Well, everybody. We've done it. Through the marvels of modern wonder and engineering I have constructed this which turns food into poop, just as you and I do. Hell, it does it better than some people are capable. And if this rubber tubing, plastic nozzles, electric motors, and buttons can poop, then we can do anything. This pooping machine smells a lot like hope."

Or something like that.