One of today’s modern miracles is the design and fabrication of micro-processors. The American electrical engineer Jack Kelby created the first integrated processor in 1958 using one single transistor. Today we can create microprocessors with over 1,000 million transistors: a veritable feat in engineering and miniaturization. Intricate optically printed circuit boards are created with photolithographs that are used as masks to print the circuitry’s patterns onto silicon chips. From automobiles to washing machines, from airplanes to cellular phones, the world we live in would not be recognizable without the integrated circuits that activate our electronic age.
Gatherings is a tribute to the invention of the integrated circuit and is created with the patterns of hundreds of historic micro-circuits. Images of these integrated circuits have been etched onto the surface of a pole-like sculpture that suggests totems, spears or botanical references, or even bundles of harvested crops. Other visual references that have inspired Gatherings include hieroglyphs and patterned carvings on the walls of temples of the past. The final artwork is given an archeological aspect, its textured surface depicting symbols and codes that seem created by an imaginary lost civilization.
In Gatherings, circuit boards transcend their merely functional nature and emerge as perhaps one of the most powerful symbols of our times. The artwork invites us to think about how the past has helped us build the present, while also suggesting the future that will surely be created.
Gatherings is a tribute to the invention of the integrated circuit and is created with the patterns of hundreds of historic micro-circuits. Images of these integrated circuits have been etched onto the surface of a pole-like sculpture that suggests totems, spears or botanical references, or even bundles of harvested crops. Other visual references that have inspired Gatherings include hieroglyphs and patterned carvings on the walls of temples of the past. The final artwork is given an archeological aspect, its textured surface depicting symbols and codes that seem created by an imaginary lost civilization.
In Gatherings, circuit boards transcend their merely functional nature and emerge as perhaps one of the most powerful symbols of our times. The artwork invites us to think about how the past has helped us build the present, while also suggesting the future that will surely be created.
Medium: Acid-Etched Stainless Steel Blocks