Dumb Living

The question concerning technology is the question concerning the constellation in which revealing and concealing, in which the coming to presence of truth comes to pass. Heidegger, 1978, “On the Question Concerning Technology”

This installation work has two dimensions. At one level it is a sculptural installation; an oversize table supports a large black box with 4 viewing holes, each of which open on to an identical scene of the very same table and black box. At another level it is a computational drawing work; a series of digital prints produced from my custom Java drawing application, Uncertain Matter, depict the table and black box in various grid-based permutations.

Dumb Living is a technological allegory. It combines aspects of sculpture, electronics and digital image making to investigate the possibility of making the workings of technology visible. A literal black box mechanism seems to offer an internal view but this is a theatrical effect. The view both inside and outside is marked at every level by illusion, displacement and mise en abyme.