1. Art Evaluation
Initially I was drawing chaotic setups in a controlled environment. The setup included many
objects such as paper, computer parts and fabric. This led me to explore technology as a
theme as I was interested in how the computer parts were incorporated into the setup. It
led me to want to explore how technology is used in art.
From investigations I found many artists of different disciplines who incorporate technology
into their work for example contemporary British artist Susan Stockwell used computer
parts to create large scale maps of the world and Yuri Suzuki who created a radio using a
circuit board and made it resemble a London tube map.
Inspired by the artist’s work I explored different areas of art and created work using
different disciplines for example in response to Hong Kong based photographer Michael
Wolf I took a range of close-up photographs of screens form different items of technology
i.e. computer screens, came consoles and mobile phones. Yuri Suzuki’s work led me into
photo manipulation where I tried to recreate his ‘Tube radio’ using a photograph I took of a
discarded computer component and a photo of a Tokyo subway map and Adobe Photoshop.
I also found inspiration from other areas such as film and books for example Akira, a manga
created by Katsuhiro Otomo, is set in a futuristic world with a lot of high-tech technology
and scenery. The intricate drawings by Katsuhiro Otomo in the book inspired me to create a
detailed drawing of discarded computer parts I saw around me. I complete the drawings on
a long roll in reference to the research I had done on Jean Tinguely’s ‘drawing machines’.
The film Tron explored themes such as computer software coming to life and this interested
me a lot. It led me to my initial thoughts of creating an animation. The way the film Tron
personified the lifeless inanimate subjects such as computer software inspired me to create
an animation exploring this theme.
I created a figure out of wire and used it in an animation which lasts just over half a minute.
I shot the animation by taking a series of still photographs at different angles and edited the
photographs to play next to each other at a high speed using Windows Movie Maker. I used
discarded pieces of a computer as the setting for the animation piece. In the animation I
show this figure emerging from computer compartments and interacting with a snake like
creature. The figure emerging from the computer represents part of the computer coming
to life. I portray the wire figure as having emotions and feelings such a curiosity which is
shown when it starts to explore other parts of the computer and shock and excitement
when it notices the other creature.