Art Imitates Life, Life Imitates Art
Tech as art
Reflections, Rob Pettit
All images courtesy of Rob Pettit
Pettit’s art installations have been created by arranging old cell phones into giant shapes, as geometrically perfect as they are spellbinding. Pettit says: “I have collected over 5,000 mobile phones and made work from them in various mediums: several large floor sculptures, light pieces, sound and drawings made up from over 40,000 tiny ink hand-drawn cell phones.” (Recycle Nation)
See
Art Imitates Life, Life Imitates Art
“It’s meditation, setting them up,” he says. “Kind of like Buddhist monks making their sand designs and then dumping them in the river.” Circular designs and more random heaps also form part of his repertoire, but each mass grave commands attention — whether lying in the middle of the room or fanning out in all directions on walls. There are some real dinosaurs in there, too — some from as far back as the early ’80s.
In the selections below, it seems that art is mirroring life in hopes of getting viewers to reflect and relate.
Absorbed by Light by Design Bridge
Three people sit on a bench, completely immersed in their cell phones, ignoring each other's presence. It's an all too common scene, but this time what we're looking at isn't a real-life experience but a clever piece of art. As part of the Amsterdam Light Festival, brand design agency Design Bridge created the thought-provoking installation Absorbed by Light. (My Modern Met)
Reaching Out by Thomas J Price
Reaching Out by Thomas J Price has been unveiled as the latest installation on The Line. Picture: Jeff Moore (Image: Jeff Moore)
Lost in Space by Judd Nelson
laser-cut steel, 5’6” high, 3’ in diameter, 400 pounds.
In the artist’s words, “I have created work that reflects what I see every day. As an artist, I record my view of the world and the people that are living in it in the year 2017.”
Say
How do the pieces above make you feel? Is one most impactful to you, why?
Pettit’s work, at first glance, feels ancient, like artifacts, evidence of worship. On closer look, its masses of discarded cell phones. If it remains long after we are gone (as it surely will given all of the plastics involved) what will future humans learn about us?
Do you think our digital dependence (read addiction) will ever become outmoded? Will the pendulum swing in the opposite direction and our future selves think us pathetic? I’d love to chat about this!
Do
Look around your house to find objects in multiple. Create a mandala or symmetrical design. Think about why you have these objects. What value do they hold for you?
This week, be on the lookout for friend or family groups on cell phones. How does it make you feel?
Who are the youngest and oldest people you can find engrossed in their devices?
Try a digital Detox, here’s how!
About Rob Pettit
Artist Rob Pettit creates his artwork out of obsolete, discarded or recycled mobile phones. His instillation are painstakingly arranged flower-swirls and stacked mini-mountains, as well as paintings. (ARN)
Pettit’s art installations have been created by arranging old cell phones into giant shapes, as geometrically perfect as they are spellbinding. Pettit says: “I have collected over 5,000 mobile phones and made work from them in various mediums: several large floor sculptures, light pieces, sound and drawings made up from over 40,000 tiny ink hand-drawn cell phones.” All are interesting, but it’s the coiled simplicity of the spirals that capture the imagination — not least because they’re all recycled and reused, saved from becoming landfill by a higher purpose — as an artistic medium.
Whether dropped and broken, drowned in toilets or baths, or having given up the ghost due to more natural causes, every day, more and more cell phones die, their screens fading to black for the final time. No funeral ceremony awaits these faithful servants; once they’re outdated, they’re scrapped one way or another, ready to be replaced by the latest models. By forming so many of these everyday objects into spirals — potentially infinite curves emanating from a central point — Pettit aims to “highlight the proliferation and waste of cell phones.” A single invention spawned a multitude of flip-top clones. (Recycle Nation)
Read more: This very night your soul… Yale Divinity Press
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