artist statement
As an artist who works in new media-interactive installations, my aim is to create an immersive experience for users in a given space. My works blend programming and physical computing through a combination of microcontrollers, electronic components and raw physical materials such as acrylic and aluminum. I believe that tools are simply a mediator between my work and a user, allowing for the underlying theoretical construct of my works to be better communicated as I engage my audience in open-ended dialogues on the role of human-machine interactions.
Mathematics has always been an integral part of my life. I was exposed to mathematical concepts at a very young age due to my mother being a mathematics professor. I grew up looking at the world through the perspective of mathematics and how it relates to our everyday life. At this point it is hard for me to separate from this perspective and it has influenced the very foundation of my thinking — making it logical. However, I also embrace an emotional side, which questions the world around me. It is the marriage between these somewhat opposing perspectives that forms the foundational bridge that is unique to my work.
I’ve spent most of my childhood and early adult life playing video games and reading science fiction books. This experience has made me question the relationship between humans, their creation and machines, and how they interconnect with each other. I have also been extremely influenced by the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick, which reinforced the viability of my questions regarding the nature of human-machine interactions and their importance to a larger audience. As my research into the human-machine paradigm expanded, I have found both answers and more questions. This has led me to explore linguistics, particularly semiotics, as well as Baudrillard’s notion of hyperreality and the meaning of existence as it relates to cyberculture.
Most of my works contain mathematical elements; some involving random/noise, others algorithmic equations in my programming codes. However, the conceptual core framework for all my works is “to question”. What I provide in my artworks is not answers, but rather a space for questions to emerge. Questions that I have been asking myself are projected in my pieces, inviting the audience to follow me in my quest in search for more questions.
The questions that arise in my new media-interactive installations explore the similarities between the Internet and our everyday lives. Cyberspace, as I see it is similar to a representation of a map that is hyperreal. What we perceive, what we feel, what we experience in cyberspace is merely metadata, computational symbols that float in a vacuum, in a space that does not even exist. This is a manifestation of the reality that we live in. On an information level, we are nothing but signs and symbols. We consist of what we have understood before, a denotation of words strung together by a complex network of data; a rhizome.
As noted, mathematics and programming play a central role in my work, which is admired for its elegant coding and modular structures. I calculate every aspect of the creative process and final artwork, even in seemingly random noise-generated works. This analytical precision is often cited by other programmers as a particular strength in my approach.
My new media-interactive installations are successful precisely because they invite questions and engage my audience in a dialogue about the interconnected nature of the human-machine paradigm. I believe, there is a space in our minds, which grows relative to the activity of our minds. Therefore, the more you know, the more you become lost in this world we call the mind. The question is to know enough so that we may know how to begin.