Reawaken
[2018]

Reawaken is a kinetic sculpture with 55 robotic arms, powered by 55 servo motors. The lowering of the arms causes an abstract print on paper.

Technology mirrors humanity, and vice versa. In addition to creating beauty, technology is there to meet our needs. We, and our needs, have evolved to a point where we are so integrated that we consume technology on autopilot. We live in a time of mass production in which our daily devices increasingly mimick each other. A smartphone is a small tablet, a tablet a small computer and a computer a small television. The question of what this does with our imagination, together with the increasingly invisible technological progress such as algorithms and artificial intelligence, have been my starting point for Reawaken.
Accordion Content
[material] perspex, wood, metal, 55 servo motors, 3 pololu micro controllers

[dimensions] 800×1000 mm
Imagine humanity through the eyes of aliens. Wouldn’t we look magical from space? From afar, humans seems to generate light. On closer inspection you would see that they actually have frail bodies, and they dominate their habitat through the use of tools.

Over time perhaps you could see the shift. The dawn of an industrialised civilisation. For a time humankind flourished in their mass-produced utopia. Great tools were built, of a scale easily visible from space. These creatures became enslaved to automatisation. With no need for thinking, their brains grew weaker, and their ability to dream of radical new technologies faded. The magic of these tools got lost in utility, as humans become estranged from the technological landscape surrounding them.

How will they re-insert themselves and reconnect with their tools? Will they start imagining again when they are empowered to understand their tools? Let us take a step back in time and space to obsolete technologies. Is there anything to be gained from resurrecting lost techniques?

Reawaken
[2018]

Reawaken is a kinetic sculpture with 55 robotic arms, powered by 55 servo motors. The lowering of the arms causes an abstract print on paper.


Technology mirrors humanity, and vice versa. In addition to creating beauty, technology is there to meet our needs. We, and our needs, have evolved to a point where we are so integrated that we consume technology on autopilot. We live in a time of mass production in which our daily devices increasingly mimick each other. A smartphone is a small tablet, a tablet a small computer and a computer a small television. The question of what this does with our imagination, together with the increasingly invisible technological progress such as algorithms and artificial intelligence, have been my starting point for Reawaken.

Accordion Content
[material] perspex, wood, metal, 55 servo motors, 3 pololu micro controllers

[dimensions] 800×1000 mm
Imagine humanity through the eyes of aliens. Wouldn’t we look magical from space? From afar, humans seems to generate light. On closer inspection you would see that they actually have frail bodies, and they dominate their habitat through the use of tools.

Over time perhaps you could see the shift. The dawn of an industrialised civilisation. For a time humankind flourished in their mass-produced utopia. Great tools were built, of a scale easily visible from space. These creatures became enslaved to automatisation. With no need for thinking, their brains grew weaker, and their ability to dream of radical new technologies faded. The magic of these tools got lost in utility, as humans become estranged from the technological landscape surrounding them.

How will they re-insert themselves and reconnect with their tools? Will they start imagining again when they are empowered to understand their tools? Let us take a step back in time and space to obsolete technologies. Is there anything to be gained from resurrecting lost techniques?