© David Bowen

13th Art Division Grand Prize

growth modeling device

Installation [United States]

David BOWEN

Outline

growth modeling device is a kinetic installation based on the rate of growth and structure of a onion plant. This system plays the roles of observer and creator, providing a limited and mechanical perspective of a changing living object. It attempts to replicate nature through the eyes of a simple laser device into a base industrial material, turning what was once organically dynamic into a flat sterile reproduction.

Reason for Award

Since the 18th century, artistic presentations have first been differentiated according to whether they are examples of temporal or spatial art, and have been separated into genres on the basis of the character of each medium. In the 20th century, objective measures of time and space have been acknowledged as simply personal facts structured by media. This is the starting point of thought and art in the 20th century. By inheriting this idea, the significant potency of what is currently called media art is precisely related to the restructuring and defining of time and space. This work is a machine that replicates the daily growth of the above-ground part of an onion as a model. Generation originally means displacement of temporal persistence to spatial divorce, i.e., pluralization. Time is neither more nor less than a solution drawn by spatial divorce. The embodiment of time is the theoretical core that pierces through the history of presentational media including sculpture and film. What this work represents is a deep insight into media as a system for generating space-time.