![2009 [13th] Japan Media Arts Festival Award-winning Works](/english/festival/images/h1_jusyousakuhin-en2009.gif "2009 [13th] Japan Media Arts Festival Award-winning Works")
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| © David Bowen |
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.
David BOWEN
Born in 1975 in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A., David Bowen is a studio artist and educator whose work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. He received his BFA degree from Herron School of Art in 1999 and his MFA degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 2004. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Sculpture and Physical Computing at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
I decided to submit work to Japan Media Arts Festival because of its great reputation and, when researching past Japan Media Arts Festivals, I was impressed by the quality and diversity of works selected. When I learned I received the Grand Prize in the Art Division, I was very excited and honored. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to present my latest work at Japan Media Arts Festival. After attending the festival in person, I was again very impressed by the great quality of the works exhibited. I was also extremely impressed by the professionalism of the festival coordinators. Because of the organization and support, the installation of my work went extremely smoothly. The great efforts of the staff in coordinating the award ceremony, presentation and symposium were very helpful to me in preparing for these events. Everything was extremely well organized. I think Japan Media Arts festival is one of the most organized festivals of this kind that I have participated in. I had many fascinating conversations with festival attendees about my work. It also seemed, in some cases, that other attendees were a bit perplexed by my work. Overall the feedback was positive.
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.
What makes you create a work?
My work is concerned with esthetics that results from interactive, reactive and generative processes. I produce systems, devices and situations that are set in motion to create drawings, movements, compositions, sounds and objects based on their perception of and interaction with the space they occupy.
What tools do you use the most at present?
I use machine shop tools like band saws and a drill press. Most of my recent work uses programmable micro controllers and simple robotics that need to be programmed using a computer.
What do you place greatest value on in your work?
I think I place a lot of value on the potential for autonomy. I would like to some day create a device or system that can be set up and function without the necessity for intervention. Perhaps employing a completely autonomous generative interaction between natural and mechanical systems.
What personal concept runs through your creative activities?
In my early work, my aim was to push the contrast between natural and mechanical systems. As I explore these elements further, I find many similarities between these types of systems. As my exploration becomes deeper, it is these similarities that I find especially fascinating.
When you create a work, in what way do you think of a presentation using technologies or media as a means to communicate?
I think of the technologies I use in my work as another tool or material. I began creating sculpture in steel. I think of computers, microcontrollers and mechatronic components as materials for my sculpture like steel, plastic or aluminum.
Could you name a person, a work, or an event that has most influenced you?
My studio practice has been influenced mostly by my mentor Guy BALDWIN. Professor BALDWIN is an expert at the creation of kinetic sculpture using analogue inputs and outputs and steel fabrication. Of course he was a great influence on my work technically but most importantly he taught me not to take myself so seriously.
What kind of work would you like to create in the future?
I would like to some day create more technologically advanced work that could have the potential to function more autonomously. I think more technologically sophisticated systems have the potential to create greater and more complex interactions between systems.
What is the meaning or importance of creating for you?
When I have an idea for a new work, I pursue it obsessively. During this time, the drive for me to go to the studio is very strong and I feel I cannot stop until I come to some resolution. Often pieces evolve from the original idea due to technical constraints or unexpected outcomes. It is these unexpected elements that can often be the most interesting part of a finished piece.
