Monument Proposal

I live in the heart of Silicon Valley and tech culture is a big part of the identity of my community. I want to make my monument for this community. I want my monument to be iconic a kind of iconic presence for the community and honor the world changing work people of Silicon valley have done. The most iconic figure that I can think of is the silicon waifer. So my idea is to create a huge (30 ft) silicon waifer that is suspended in the air and rotates slowly. Laser etched into the waifer are the names of all those who contributed to the digital revolution. People such as the person who invented the micro chip.

Monument intervention

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOyuM9tjEc0

Monument Intervention

The monument I have in mind is the California Pioneer monument currently located near the SF Library. A portion of this monument has been the subject of controversy. On four lower pedestals, arranged around the column, like compass points, are life-size and larger figures from California history. One pedestal titled "Early Days," is a triumvirate of Mexican vaquero, Franciscan padre, and submissively seated Indian. Native Americans find this particular pedestal offensive and insulting. As a means of compromise the idea of placing a plaque in front of this pedestal was conceived. The wording of this plaque then became the subject of further controversy. The original wording, which neither side liked was: "The three figures of "Early Days," a Native American, a mission padre, and a vaquero, were created to represent the founding of California's missions. In 1769, the missionaries first came to California with the intent of converting the state's 300,000 Native Americans to Christianity. With their efforts over in 1834, the missionaries left behind about 56,000 converts -- and 150,000 dead. Half of the original Native American population had perished during this time from disease, armed attacks, and mistreatment." Native Americans claimed that this wording downplays the treatment of Native Americans and the real number of deaths. The SF Catholic Archdiocese and Consul General of Spain, home to the Franciscan priests who founded the missions, also objected -- but for different reasons. The Spanish Consul asked the commission "not to be toying around with divisive issues and much less posting them in bronze..." The Chronicle quoted Kelly Cullen, a Franciscan friar who works with the poor, calling the plaque "unnecessarily negative." I think the past and present mistreatment of Native Americans is not something to be ignored nor commemorated. I want to intervene on this monument and make public, even if it is just in a temporary fashion, the true nature of the conquering of California. Some of my ideas include


1) Painting sheets with bible verses that condemn the acts depicted on the four lower pedestals and draping them across the front of the pedestals.


2) Fashioning a spear with a flag on the end featuring a christian cross and attaching it  to the hand of the Padre and placing the other end of it as to appear that he is killing the seated indian


3) Writing in big bold letters the original wording for the plaque on a roll of paper and posting it to the fence under the EARLY DAYS Pedestal. 

Robots with brains... literally

A thank you to Professor Levine for sharing this story with me. Below is a video about a lab who is studying how brains work by culturing neurons and using them to control a simple robot. As the robot moves about it even LEARNS.



The scientist in the video explains how their research can be beneficial to the medical community. It makes sense that the scientists would think of their research in these terms, but what does an artist do with this new information. Scientists seek to understand the world around them. But artists INTERPRET the world around them, taking into account the culture of the time and use their works to draw attention to the state of things. Artists of the past have seen the direction of our society was taking and created works of science fiction which are becoming fact. For example Luke Skywalker in Star Wars has a prosthetic arm which he commands fluidly, just as he had controlled his biological arm. For the extent of human history this has been a concept of science fantasy. Now it is a reality. Here is a video of someone learning how to use a prostheses that is surgically linked to the nerves that once controlled her biological arm. This is only her third session of training in using this prosthesis.



And here is a link to the companies website that explains the technology behind this prosthesis.
http://www.ottobockus.com/cps/rde/xchg/ob_us_en/hs.xsl/33797.html

It seems that our societies technological ability is limitless. What does limit us is our nature to sin. I use the term sin as I am Christian but more specifically it is the tendency toward Greed, and prioritizing ourselves instead of placing importance on loving others. To explain this further I want to quote an interview with an established sculptor Alan Rath. Alan Rath has an engineering education from MIT and specializes in Kinetic sculpture.

MT: Part of what I find so appealing about your work is the revelry in technology. It solves the problem of alienation with play, rather than by rejecting technology in favor of a supposedly "natural" state. In fact, you've said that we don't really have any technical problems, that our "nature" is our problem.

AR: At MIT I saw what our actual level of technical knowledge is. It's way beyond anything you see in ordinary life. It's not lack of technical knowledge that prevents us from doing things; it's petty squabbles over who gets what. NO amount of technology will improve our situation if we don't become more enlightened about things which are not technical.

Technology does so much great stuff for us that we don't acknowledge and yet we want it to do things that it will never do. You're wearing glasses -- isn't that a great thing? You're wearing shoes. Can you imagine what that does for your daily comfort, productivity and health? We are cyborgs already. Our consciousness is fundamentally altered because we grew up in an artificial environment. Due to the plasticity of the human mind we don't see it as being artificial because we grew up in it. Somehow at a certain age the brain hardens and new changes seem alien. But machinery is not unnatural. It's a reflection of the people who make it.

This was taken from:
http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/profile/

My robot arm project is a mixture of a prosthesis and kinetic sculpture. Aproaching this piece as an artist instead of a scientist or a R&D engineer takes the monetary gain out of the work. I want this machine to be an extension of myself, but one that is created and used to show love and be widely available. I am using open source everything to research and develop this, and will maintain the collaborative artistic nature after completion. I will be following in the footsteps of the artists and engineers who created the eye writer I blogged about previously.