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Chris
Vecchio
Artist Statement About Technology My work explores the relationship between man and technology. I am concerned that, as technology becomes increasingly complex, people are becoming increasingly alienated from the objects which surround and sustain them. Technology is merely an extension and reflection of man. In fact, no objects contain more of man's essence than do his tools. Consequently, a division between man and technology is as artificial as one between man and art. If we sense a division, it is because we have lost the emotional link to technology. In order to stem the trend toward alienation, I believe that people need to become less afraid to develop intellectual and, even more importantly, emotional connections with technological objects. For this to occur, technology must become more ergonomic - physically, emotionally, and aesthetically. Both the users and the creators of technological objects must (re)learn to "celebrate the mechanism". About the Objects My sculptures are singular (as opposed to mass produced), handmade electrical/mechanical objects. They are intended to communicate emotional messages and to deliver commentaries on technology. My medium is electronics, i.e., the abstracted operation of the circuitry used as an analog to the thematic focus of the sculpture. By individually hand-building the cases containing the circuitry that I design, I pay homage to the circuitry. The cases are essentially small shrines which imply value on the part of their contents. Additionally, although the circuitry is the focus, proper presentation is essential in order to establish a link between it and the viewer. The cases tend to be constructed in nostalgic/retrotypical styles. This approach is intended to make the pieces endearing and to suggest that perhaps we have lost something along the path to contemporary technology. Finally, by hand building both the circuitry and the containers, I am personally establishing emotional and physical connections to technology. About the Artist I was trained as an electrical engineer and have worked professionally as such for the past 10 years. In the late 1980s, while in graduate school, it occurred to me that I needed something to counterbalance the heavy math and science based work-load that I was under at the time. For some reason, I had bought into the misguided cliché that engineering and the "hard sciences" were somehow stifling to the creative nature. I considered learning to play a musical instrument or perhaps taking up oil painting when it occurred to me that these were just media and were not in and of themselves necessarily "creative". Why should I expend the effort necessary to become proficient in an unfamiliar medium when I had spent many years immersing myself in a complex and versatile medium: the discipline of electronics? The effort required to gain proficiency in a medium (be it oil, bronze, the violin, or electronics) is largely one of learning the medium's history and practicing the "craft aspect" of the medium until it becomes second nature and I had already done all this. I realized there was no reason that my medium could not be applied to aesthetic objectives and so I set out to use electrical technology as a palette. Chris Vecchio, April 1999 Modern man has lost the love of inanimate objects. Resume EDUCATION: DREXEL UNIVERSITY, Philadelphia, PA.
Evidence of Toolmaking, solo show, April 2002,
Nexus, Foundation for Today's Art, Philadelphia, PA
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