System Disintegration

Virtual sculpture
2.35m x 2.35m x 0.33m
2022

In engineering, the process of bringing together components to make a larger functioning system is called system integration. In the natural world, however, organisms die and disintegrate into simpler organic or inorganic matter.

In today’s fast-paced life permeated by technology, we seem to be lost in the immediacy technology engerders and the urgency of attention it demands. When we create devices, software and digital content, we are caught in the illusion that they assume a permanent existence. If we switch the perspective to a macro timeline, we’re instead faced with our organic nature, our mortality, the inevitable disintegration of our bodies and re-integration with nature, while the industrial objects will take much longer to go through the same process.

Installation view
RESIDUE, Grey State, virtual, 2022

In this work, these realities are pieced together to invite the viewer to reflect on the legacies we leave behind, digital or physical, the meaning and significance of the ceaseless production and consumption, and our relationship with nature. Personally, these are the questions I pondered on when working in Silicon Valley producing software and services that claimed to “change the world” and “make a dent in the universe”.

The objects in the work are found on the Internet, credited below. The body fragments came from a 3D scan of my own body and the head model was sculpted.