MAKE: Blog: Paleo electronics by Chris Murphy

Paleo electronics by Chris Murphy

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Paleo electronics by Chris Murphy - amazing, incredible works, love them all-- Here's the artist's statement...

Paleo electronics. While working in the electrical field I spent quite a bit of time with all sorts of antiquated equipment, usually trying to coax a bit more life out of it, or removing it in order to update it with a black box that could do the same job better and faster but without any of the mechanical beauty. I started to really admire the quality of the work and precision that went into these older devices and was often stunned at the complexity of function arrived at through the most simple means. The wiring and mechanical means of the piece became important design elements. I began to use these same means to bring the viewers eyes around the work. I exposed the components and used the circuits to build in the third dimension. I also saw how slop in these mechanical systems can produce results that appear to mimic sentience. Part of this is due to the human tendency to organize order out of chaos. The demonstrative nature of these devices seemed fertile ground for creating a dialog with the viewer and the sculpture. With the kinetic work of this period I was hoping to set up 'narratives' for the viewer to react with. Even though the functions of these pieces are neutral (closed systems performing no real "work" per se,) people would respond emotionally to the pathos of some of these machines. In some of the later pieces this was accentuated by the reference to the figure.

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