Internal Combustion Engine
Electro-mechanical structure, 2012
“Internal Combustion Engine” is an electro-mechanical sculpture formally based on the process during which fossil fuel is converted, via explosion, into a mechanical action. Thus the message is about a mechanism with a sporadically reactionary function based on internal processes, but directed outwards. The sculpture tells a poetic tale about the inner explosion, a push resulting from the explosive mixture causing changes – summing up successive explosions, a certain result is achieved. This is a sort of magic circle in which successive events are intensified through feedback related to other events, thus creating (or not creating) balance in the system. Each iteration of the object heightens the present condition and this action is tended to run its course until some outer factor interrupts this cycle. Such a system always tends towards destabilisation, so all attempts to subject and control explosive processes degrade the system’s output, reducing its specific power. Thus the internal combustion system, from one point of view, is a story about searching for balance between the desired pragmatic result and nature’s unpredictable behaviour. From the historical aspect, fuel and internal combustion engines have been key factors in the rapid industrialisation of the human life, providing chances to move quicker, farther and reach places otherwise inaccessible for human beings. This technology has opened enormous prospects for humankind, carrying equally destructive consequences. This is the human wish to hold sway over nature’s physical processes, restrain the fire and control explosions. Controlling and manipulating natural resources has never been unequivocal, as all natural processes are interrelated and balanced. Disharmony and misbalance are created to realise short-term goals, forgetting about the wider context. Humans are prone to wishful thinking and ignoring dissenting opinions. This human choice reminds one of Aesop’s fables in Ancient Greece featuring a hungry fox that could not reach grapes and who went away saying: “Oh, you aren’t even ripe yet. I don’t need any sour grapes.” In social psychology this phenomenon is known as cognitive dissonance. This is a motivation to reduce inner conflict, changing existing ideas or creating new ones, thus arriving at consistent judgements. (K.P.)
Downshifting? To my mind, these are all specific questions that become pertinent for most people from time to time, regardless of definition, a crisis or any other external factors. This is a question of balancing one’s inner world and the optimal use of one’s resources. Would opting out of the game be a reaction? Or discontent with the model we ourselves have created? Should we get angry like kids who don’t like the rules of the game or have lost at times? The greatest threat is to sink into carelessness and remain on the same level of existence without attempting any progress.
Artist's Bio:
Krists Pudzens has graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia Sculpture Department, and is based in Riga. For the past six years he has explored the field of interactive and electronic art. His study is directed towards sculpture and the conceptual language of three dimensional forms, using a mix of many artistic and industrial techniques. He has participated in the arts and technology festivals Amber (2008 + 2009, Turkey) and PixelACHE2010, Helsinki (Finland). (ISEA2010)