| Artist Statement |
About Tools
My work explores the relationship between man and technology. I
am concerned that, as technology becomes increasingly complex, people
are becoming increasingly alienated from the objects which surround
and sustain them. Technology is merely an extension and reflection
of man. In fact, no objects contain more of man's essence than do
his tools. Consequently, a division between man and technology is
as artificial as one between man and art. If we sense a division,
it is because we have lost the emotional link to technology. In
order to stem the trend toward alienation, I believe that people
need to become less afraid to develop intellectual and, even more
importantly, emotional connections with technological objects. For
this to occur, technology must become more ergonomic — physically,
emotionally, and aesthetically. Both the users and the creators
of technological objects must (re)learn to "celebrate the mechanism".
"I love technology but when people stop walking on the down
escalator I get concerned."
About the Bones
The use of bone constituted a significant shift in materials
for me. I had been searching for a way to make the human-technology
connection more explicit and so I began experimenting with bone
as a substrate for my devices. It’s a wonderful material, with
properties that fall somewhere between those of wood and stone.
Its fluid shapes contrast with the truncations introduced by the
saw, and yield objects less formal than my marquetry pieces, more
akin to the organic nature of the electronics within. By literally
integrating electronics and bone, the teleprosthetic relationship
between man and technology becomes manifest. At the same time there
is an inherent ambivalence to many of the objects since the electronics
is, in a sense, both "feeding off of" biological remains
and simultaneously reanimating them. This double-edged nature is
analogous to the genetic yet alienated, empowering yet at times
atrophying, relationship we have with our tools.
Just as a tool is a very fundamental extension of our humanness,
immediate and handheld, I want these objects to be adjusted, held,
played with and interrogated.
About the Meters
A fundamental objective of mine has been to explore the use of electrical
technology as an aesthetic medium. As an adjunct to this, I became
interested in the expressive potential of a common icon of modern
technology, the meter. In an ongoing series of "meterboxes"
I design circuitry to generate particular meter motions, each appropriate
to the theme of an individual piece. In this series, the behavior
of the electronics was initially intended to be narrative, and the
meter a revelatory window into the analogy between theme and device.
Interestingly however, when the boxes were placed in a gallery,
I often found that people expected the meters to be literally measuring
some physical quantity. To me the pieces were very didactic, very
traditional. There were no sensors involved. They hung on the wall
and expounded, oblivious to their surroundings. It became clear
that the meter was a much more abstract object to me than to most
viewers. I see it as a one dimensional information channel and I’m
interested in the expressive potential of this limited, ostensibly
sterile, mechanism. My point was that they could tell you something
more than voltage and yet people kept asking "what are the
meters measuring?" I saw people dancing in front of and yelling
at the art to see if it knew they were there! Which is interesting
because no one expects a painting to react to them. I rarely even
see people fanning or blowing on Calder’s mobiles, but people
expect electrical technology to be "interactive", which
makes me think that on some level, we consider electrical devices
to be more a part of us than most objects. In light of the above,
I’ve begun modifying my approach to position the meter as a
more abstract symbol. I’ve started removing the scales on the
meters and sometimes adding text. To satisfy the desire to interact,
I’ve added controls to let the viewers modify the behavior.
The meter is a powerful icon. It is to be read. It is trying to
tell us something. People are drawn to it just as to a face. And
there is something primal about a message reduced and abstracted
to the motion of a single line.
About the Artist
I was trained as an electrical engineer and have worked professionally
as such for the past 10 years. In the late 1980s, while in graduate
school, it occurred to me that I needed something to counterbalance
my heavy math- and science-based workload. For some reason, I had
bought into the misguided cliché that engineering and the
"hard sciences" were somehow stifling to the creative
nature. I considered learning to play a musical instrument or working
in a traditional format such as oil when it occurred to me that
these media were not in and of themselves necessarily "creative".
Why should I expend the effort necessary to become proficient in
an unfamiliar medium when I had spent many years immersing myself
in a complex and versatile one: electronics? The effort required
to gain proficiency in a medium (be it oil, bronze, the violin,
or electronics) is largely one of learning the history and practicing
the "craft aspect" of the medium until it becomes second
nature. I had already done all this. I realized there was no reason
why my medium could not be applied to aesthetic objectives and so
I set out to use electrical technology as a palette.
Modern man has lost the love of inanimate objects.
— Herman Hesse |
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| Education |
| 1992
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
PhD in Electrical Engineering
1987
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA
BS in Electrical Engineering |
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| Selected Bibliography |
2002
NPR
Radio Interview, Aries Keck, WHYY FM, 20 June (click here to listen,
requires Flash Player, Right-Click to Download)
NPR
Radio Interview, Aries Keck, WHYY FM, 20 June (click here to listen,
MP3 format, Right-Click to Download
Edward Higgins, "Tools of the Trade,"
South Philadelphia Review,
June 20
Roberta Fallon, "Bells and Bone Whistles,"
Philadelphia Weekly, July 3 (click
here to read the article)
Marisa Mariscotti, "Evidence of Toolmaking,"
www.digitalcity.com/philadelphia,
June 2002
Nikki Roszko, Pick of the Week, "Evidence
of Toolmaking at Nexus," Philadelphia City Paper, June
6 (click
here to read the article)
Nikki Roszko, "Power to the People,
Art in Science XVI: Electricity," Philadelphia City Paper,
April 4
2001
Monica Ortwein, "Sharadin Enters the Future of Art," The
Kutztown Keystone, February 15
Ron Schira, "Exploring Technology’s
Human Side," Reading Eagle Times, February 23
Roberta Fallon, "Perfect Strangers,"
Philadelphia Weekly, February 28 (click
here to read the article)
1999
Raj Thadani, "Robot Poetry Radio," Sound Collector
Magazine, Vol. 4
Edward Higgins, "Local Color,"
South Philadelphia Review, May 27
gerard brown, "Current Events,"
Philadelphia Weekly, April 21
Robin Rice, "Rubber Soul," Philadelphia
City Paper, April 16 (click
here to read the article)
Edward Sozanski, "Case For Art,"
Philadelphia Inquirer, April 16
1998
Mark Davis, "Bella Vista’s Poet of the Airwaves,"
Philadelphia Inquirer, November 3 |
| Selected Exhibitions |
|
Solo
2005
Susquehanna Museum of Art, Harrisburg,
PA
Myers Gallery, Tulsa Living Arts
Center, Tulsa, OK
2003
Dzyga Institute of Contemporary Art,
Lviv, Ukraine
2002
Evidence of Toolmaking, Nexus,
Foundation for Today’s Art, Philadelphia, PA
1999
Technology Fetish, An exhibition of handmade
electronic objects, Nexus, Foundation for Today’s
Art, Philadelphia PA
Group
Subtle Nothings, Borowsky
Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2002
Hungarian Sculptural Exchange Exhibition, Janus Pannonius
Museum, Pecs, Hungary
BioTech, InLiquid at DaVinci
Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA
Building Unique Works, Washington
Square, Washington, DC
Electricity, Esther M. Klein Gallery, Philadelphia,
PA
2001
Contemporary Philosophies,
InLiquid at Bridgette Mayer Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
New Directions, Main Line Art Center, Haverford,
PA
Future Imperfect, Sharadin
Gallery, Kutztown University, PA (click
here to read the essay)
2000
Construction, works that challenge the categorical definitions of
art, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA
Every day I think of you,
installation, supported by the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, at
Second Street and Elfreth’s Alley, Philadelphia, PA
1999-2000
Beginnings and Endings, winner
of Juror’s prize, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington
It’s About Time, invitational
at Lockjaw Gallery, Philadelphia PA
Place of Memory: an archaeology of site
specificity, Temple University Gallery, Philadelphia,
PA
1999
Bridging the Gender Gap, Proximity, and
Window to the Past
Installations (located in bathrooms) as part of the Visual Fringe
Festival in conjunction with Dissentia Curatorial Services, Philadelphia
PA
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