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At The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education 8480 Hagy’s Mill Road, Philadelphia, PA : MAP / DIRECTIONS May 6 – October 30, 2007 Chris Vecchio Supplemental Shrubbery Sound Source invites visitors to question what constitutes “natural” and “man-made” through a series of motion activated modules installed along a section of the trail. The modules emit audio, ranging from subtle to humorous, that supplement existing sounds in the environment. The organic yet mechanical design of the individual sculptures are clearly foreign to their surround and make reference to how man has dramatically modified the environment through the introduction of invasive species and transformed the landscape with technological intervention. Chris Vecchio lives and works in Philadelphia.Chris Vecchio was trained as an electrical engineer and has worked professionally as such for the past 10 years. In the late 1980s, while in graduate school, it occurred to him that he needed something to counterbalance his heavy math- and science-based workload. For some reason, he had bought into the misguided cliché that engineering and the "hard sciences" were somehow stifling to the creative nature. He realized there was no reason why his medium could not be applied to aesthetic objectives and so set out to use electrical technology as a palette. Vecchios work explores the relationship between man and technology. He writes "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". Vecchio has exhibited his works widely both in the United States and abroad. He lives and works in Philadelpia. http://www.noisemantra.com
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