2014.11.19 – 2014.11.14
Media Architecture Biennale 2014
Godsbanen Center for Cultural Production, Aarhus, Denmark
This wall installation proposes an interaction with media architecture inspired by skill games, amusement parks and by the recent archeological discovery of Stone Age smiling faces in the Amazon River. Placed on the wall in the form of a 16 x 16 grid, 256 incandescent light bulbs are used as a canvas for a Stone Age inspired performance. I used a cobblestone taken from a Berlin road as a tool to draw a face by smashing select light bulbs on the grid. The installation will need no external power to smile.
In the context of a media arts festival, Smashy Face undermines the ever-present imperative to use increasingly complex technologies as a means of feigning innovation. Returning to analog forms of image making—but making wry reference to binary expression with the bit-like 16 x 16 grid—each light bulb smashed represents an exploded pixel here. The work stands in stark contrast to the embellished technological works, to suggest instead, that there remains traction in concise gestures and raw materials.