Dan Henderson

 

My art explores the viral allure of technology and its unintended consequences. I am a sculptor and an inventor. Invention, like sculpture, is an artistic endeavor. Although the two disciplines utilize different mediums of expression, both share the ability to affect our perception and how we interact. My sculpture memorializes the impact that art and technology have on humanity.

 

In our lifetime, we have witnessed the birth of the microchip, the Internet, the ATM, video games, caller ID, the personal computer, the digital camera, and the portable cellular telephone. These ingenious machines and systems have conquered great human challenges, but not without unintended consequences.

 

In 2007, a prison guard utilized a cellular telephone to video the execution of Saddam Hussein, and it quickly spread across the world via the Internet, easily seen by our children. This event propelled me to think deeply about the use of technology and how it connects us interculturally yet somehow divides us interpersonally.

 

We should consider the ethics of products manufactured with toxic disposable materials. In a world of virtual reality with e-mail, text messaging, and Internet shopping, we are confronted with the decline in face-to-face communication, the erosion of community, and the expectation of instant gratification. I want people to talk about technology — rather than merely use technology to talk.

 

The scale of the sculpture both amplifies the form and functional design elements of the original objects while creating tension for the viewer unable to use them. The permanence of iconic products sculpted in stone represents the connection with the natural world and contrasts with the temporality of technology and the materials they are built from. The work is symbolic of the Art of Invention and the permanent alteration to the human landscape.