Trapped is a
17" functional maquette for a proposed full-size
installation, although the maquette has proved so successful that
I may never build the full version. The concept is simple: A figure
wrapped in dirty cloth and bound
with ropes lies on a bed of ashes. It struggles
to escape its bonds, and makes
audible sounds. Originally it was not intended to be
literally "figurative", but considerably less
human in appearance. However, the materials seemed to struggle on their
own to attain this final shape. For me this was a literal and practical example of the
work telling the artist how it should be shaped (Knill and Levine 2005, Mulisch 1999). The
internal armature of the piece
consists of four servo motors controlled by a computer program
written in C; later modifications intended to make the piece more
portable replaced the computer and its C program with a PIC chip
built into the base. The PIC runs a revised, streamlined program
written in assembly language.
The figure is not in continual motion. Rather, every few minutes it becomes exhausted,
and stops moving for a while. Then it very slowly begins to struggle again,
exhibiting a tentative "breathing" action. It's interesting to stand at a
distance in galleries and watch people who first encounter the figure during its rest
phase. When it begins to breathe, they describe their initial experience as creepy
and disturbing. That's sufficiently close to uncanny for me -- which is the experience I
intend the piece to evoke.
To see a short Quicktime movie of Trapped in action, click here.
Back to projects