Part of ‘The Automatoggler’ Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, February 2011
The Automatoggler was a collection of 4 large-scale machines with various points and styles of interaction. The Evolve You Machine was one element this collection.
This piece presents a playful misinterpretation of the future of evolution by asking participants in groups of 3 to align with projected silhouettes. In the initial installation, a team of 2-8 additional participants would interact with the machine by pressing buttons, pulling levers, etc. These actions would drive changes to the projections around the ‘frozen’ participants. The animated changes to the silhouettes would connect the 3 would-be posthumans through (sometimes archaic) machines. Because of the modular nature of the animation, the original installation could have thousands of possible outcomes.
“The Automatoggler sets up situations in which technology mediates viewers’ experiences and their consequent interactions with both the League and each other. The artwork encourages participants to ponder the increasingly machinelike nature of human contact and existence, especially in light of such developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and digital interfaces- platforms for the conflation of real and imagined space.”
— Gallery Guide
Other Installations
Bret Llewellyn Gallery, Alfred State College, 2013
Montante Cultural Center, Canisius College, Buffalo NY, 2013
Collaborators
Jeremy Speed Schwartz: Software and Animation
Lucy HG Solomon: Graphic Design
Drew Fitzsimmons: Construction
Software and Hardware
Cycling ’74 Max/Jitter
Arduino