Kinetics

Humanoid Sculptures

I construct kinetic moving sculptures from recycled items in order to explore the ways that humans are changing due to our integration with digital technology.

This is all part of my work for a PhD in kinetic sculpture at York St John Uinversity.

Selfie Baby

This sculpture is constructed from recycled objects. It explores the way that younger and younger children are being drawn to having an online presence and are increasingly image conscious as a result of this.

Sensation

We live in our bodies and carry out actions purely for the sensations we experience. Riding in the back of your parents car as a child and feeling the air run past your hand, feeling the way that it pushes your hand up and down with you turn your wrist. These are sensations that inform our consciousness because we are embodied sensing entities.

Emergence

This sculpture is inspired by the idea that everything we upload to the internet, all our photos and movies and comments go to feed AI, we are being watched, the intelligence barely caged and ready to escape, with all the information we have given it. The camera below scans the room and detects anyone standing there. This is an old polaroid camera camera, initially bought for recording family memories, now repurposed, no photo is innocent, every one a witness to us and our actions.

Imbrication

The baby sits on the edge of a high up plinth swiping on a phone. Every now and again it looks up and scans the room before looking back down and swiping again. The risk of the child sitting unattended up high where it could fall is a metaphor for the risk of leaving our children gain their views of the world from the internet unsupervised.

Individuation

A foetus is surrounded by cameras and watches curated images of itself on a tablet PC through the wall of the tank. when it is disturbed by the viewer, it struggles and flails its arms and legs.

We post scan photos of our children on the internet before they are born, giving them a social media presence by proxy, without their knowledge or consent. Their search for individuation has begun.

Skeuomorphs

Three little girls sit in a triangle chantingwords and phrases derived from technology that has become defunct. Their sensory organs, like the words they chant, have become skeomorphs, design features left over from a technology that is not used any more. As we plug ourselves into the internet sensations will be far more real than our real sensory organs can provide.

Alexa, Do You Love Me?

The robot sits at a laptop tapping away, doing mundane work, then stops and look up at the Amazon Echo and asks “Alexa Do You Love Me?” Alexa answers and the robot looks back at the keyboard and carries on typing. We are becoming attached to the devices around us, we assume that when they sound caring and provide caring for us, that they must actually care.

Incertitude

A giant attempts to pluck the petals from a plastic flower but fails, it says “she loves me, she loves me, she loves me”, but never gets to “She loves me not” for it doesnt know. Relationships over the internet are always unsure and instigate feelings of incertitude, is the other person real? do they really care? do they look like they are presented? without in person contact you can never be sure

Rejection Acceptance Machine

Homage

Divergence

Imputation

 

No Escape

 

Homage 2

Distraction 2