“That which I cannot create, I cannot understand.”
Richard P. Feynman
From the smartphone in the palm of your hand, to the small computer that took mankind to the moon, computational devices play a major role in shaping the contemporary world. Every machine we create subsequently influences us, yet we hardly understand them. Although we know how to construct machines, we still do not fully comprehend these creations. The question begs, how can we understand the machine? From neural nets to oil paint, the sciences and the arts use similar methods of observation and mimicry in order to derive new discoveries. Although such processes are not always successful at perfectly copying their subject, there is often more merit in the imperfect representation. There is something that mimicry is able to capture that goes beyond pure fact. Through the use of painting, sculpture, programming, and robotics, I seek to achieve some level of understanding via reproduction. I have been drawn to the circuit board for its captivating aesthetic, but also its function as a metaphor for the machine as a whole. Circuit boards are no longer designed by the slow and inefficient human as artificial intelligence has taken over in finding the most efficient manner of organizing each component and connection. The resulting design, created by the inhuman machine, becomes a beautifully intricate masterpiece. Through careful investigation of the computer’s “self-designed” aesthetic, I seek to find a deeper level of understanding of the precarious relationship between the body and technology.
Jamie Moriarty 