I’ve been pondering our collective love affair (and reliance on) machines and technology of all types lately. Perhaps this is because I am feeling my practice is increasingly made up of two distinct approaches to the act of making: one is decidedly low-tech (just me, simple materials, and maybe a few simple hand tools), and one is not (digital photography & video, gel transfer work, large format printing … all reliant on computers, internet, etc). Each has their own role/utility in what I want to do, to be sure, but each way of doing also satisfies different needs personally.
And then I came across this …
Quite a wonder, to my mind. And satisfying on so many levels: auditory, tactile, visual … not to mention the incredible skill & craftsmanship that has gone into realizing this magical thing.
Quite the opposite in some respects to the work I posted last in Oddment #5 … but the thread is there: how humans relate to machines and technology, and how we use them.
I hope you enjoy this too!
Incredible. I can imagine how magical it must have seemed then too..he really feels alive, its rather unnerving!
It IS a bit creepy, isn’t it? I think part of the discomfort we feel with it might be the immediate recognition that it is a machine … and we tend to like our machines to be as un-human as possible. There’s a reason so many dystopia narratives concern themselves with humanoid machines run amok … . I remember feeling a bit like this writing-machine many years ago during end of term paper-writing ay university!
That is amazing on so many levels. Thanks for sharing it!
You’re most welcome! amazing thing, isn’t it?? Marvelous in the true sense of the word.
wow.
Thought you’d like that Cath!
Pretty incredible!
Isn’t it? Quite the feat of imagination, ingenuity, and incredible skill.