I create immersive installations using theatrical elements that address social issues pertaining to technology and its connection to human behaviours, expectations and desires. My work is driven by my curiosity in exploring and researching how humans define themselves as being more or less than the sum of their parts. More to the point, I am interested in how technology influences and defines how people see themselves and the things they create. It is a medium that is designed to offer the owner contentment in their daily lives by being marketed as essential to their existence by being convenient; a surrogate provider of happiness. Technology is also a great source of wonder; a modern day form of magic used to excite and inspire an audience. I create mechanical wonders that aim to create a sense of magic while at the same time embodying humour and an edge of tragedy. My work uses technology to produce allegories that focus on the discontentment inherent in life and our failure to make sense of the world as it rapidly changes around us.
My work is influenced by the Mannerist movement of the 16th Century where myths and metaphors were used to symbolize a deeper meaning and illustrate truths about life. My work is also influenced by irony, a humorous desire to put incompatible ideas into the work to disturb expectations. This is intended to show how knowledge can be incompatible with the idea of truth. Knowledge is the experiences or feelings known by a person and is subject to that person’s subjectivity. My work exposes the truth that all the moralistic ideas being put forward by the artist is subjective and it is the audiences place to interpret the contradictory situation for themselves.
The machines I build are designed to show how an artificial environment can be used to validate and illuminate principles of life. And to ask the question: Can a machine’s artificial intelligence honestly teach us anything about ourselves. Or is it the ideas shown in their actions that trigger the viewer’s imagination to interpret the source machine’s behaviour that is most important? This is the scientific method that underlays and drives the work.
Download a .pdf of Artist statement and synopsis of projects
