| contact name | Dan Roe |
| artists' names | Dan Roe |
| artists' locations | Cambridge, MA USA |
| art name | Captivity: Specimens one and two |
| art media | Steel, solar engine (motors, glass solar panels, circuitry) |
| art dimensions | 14"x24" and 19"x19" |
| art date | 2004 |
| art description | Dan Roe finds the conceptual interplay between technology,
science, and art to be fascinating. In his art, technology and
science sometimes inform the construction of a sculpture, while the
sculpture in turn illustrates an abstract concept. At other times his
sculptures are studies of natural and theoretical anatomies that seek
to imitate nature. They are in this sense Ňartificial life forms.
The specimens in the current exhibition are artificial life forms
created from wire and circuitry. Consider either one, and let us
wonder at the most life-like aspect of this specimen. Is it some
physical characteristic, the shape of the wings, the tail, the
placement of motors roughly where feet should be, or perhaps the
infrared photosensors in the place of eyes with brain-like control
circuitry behind? Or is the most life-like characteristic behavioral,
and to be observed in the way the body moves and flexes against its
chains, while simultaneously seeking a light source to power its
movement? Neither proposition addresses the situation in which this
sculpture finds itself. This artificial life form is in a fruitless
struggle against bonds it can not hope to break, and it is destined to
struggle against these bonds so long as it moves. The creature is
captive to a moment in time from which it will never free itself, and
this unending struggle is its most life-like aspect. |
| art placard | These specimens are artificial life forms created from
wire and circuitry. Consider either one, and let us wonder at the
most life-like aspect of this individual "artificial life form." Is
it some physical characteristic, the shape of the wings, the tail, the
placement of motors roughly where feet would be, or perhaps the
infrared photosensors in the place of eyes with brain-like control
circuitry behind? Or is the most life-like characteristic behavioral,
and to be observed in the way the body moves and flexes against its
chains, while simultaneously seeking a light source to power its
movement? Neither proposition addresses the situation in which this
sculpture finds |