Backlight - Sculpture (2020)

It hurts my eyes, it bends my back

Technology has a profound impact on our bodies. We hunch over screens, we contort our fingers, we pull levers, we push buttons, we perform broad actions, we perform tiny actions. Swipes. Zooms. Turning the Head. Truly, our interaction with technology is an embodied experience. However, what is the long-term effect of this embodiment? How does technology continue to affect our bodies, even when we are not actively engaging with it? How does the technology ranging from our phones and computers to the very houses we live in affect our bodies, and senses of self? These were the questions proposed going into this sculpture. I have notably terrible posture. Sometimes, I joke that I will be looking up at everyone, despite my height, by the time I am 60 because my back hunches so bad. This hunch is a direct influence of technology. Were I to live outside, there would be no low ceilings forcing me to bend over. There would be no screens for me to hunch over to catch finer details in. There would be no small artworks to construct that require an extended period of time hunched over to analyze. These prolonged bodily exposures to technology are the result of a world we create for ourselves, and by using reclaimed material from houses, there is certainly an inference of that. Technology also forces us to avoid it, to allow the machine to do its thing while we make sure not to disturb it. Saving... do not turn off or unplug the machine. Much of the scale may indeed point to this bodily interaction, as it invades the space of the viewer, forcing them to sidestep and avoid. What are more of the kinesthetic senses of our interactions?