Artist Post
Michael Kontopoulos is an artist from Philadelphia who works with mechanical systems to examine human tics and irregular actions that occur in daily happenings. He seems to respond to the consumerism ideal that America so adamantly supports by creating nonsensical creations that are custom made to assist people in eccentric or nervous behaviors. I only recently stumbled upon his work when searching for an artist on rhizome, but was drawn in by the description and picture. The article on rhizome focused on a “home monitoring system” made to allow people to pace back and forth while their vital signs and “keeps tabs on the amount of laps.” The stats are sent to a wall unit where the amount of time spent pacing is transferred into red yarn which is released from a spool. The system is evidently part of a series called “Measure of Discontent” Michael is working on at UCLA. Through this series Michael works to explore the idea of numerically quantifying an emotion, such as anxiety.
Clearly this artist is responding to the idea that emotions can be displayed in graphs or by numbers, such as the National Happiness number which some countries manage to quantify. This idea is a fascinating one, and both the art, and the statistics lead one to wonder how exactly these emotions can be measured. I think the artist is also responding in part, to the American desire to create devices to fix all of our problems. The idea of a machine for pacing on seems ridiculous, but less so when compared to treadmills or other gym equipment. Treadmills are seemingly paradoxical as they fulfill a need that would otherwise be fulfilled by simply walking or running around outside, as one would have been forced to do in olden days to obtain food or meet basic needs. When viewed in comparison, a “pacing machine” then becomes more of a serious creation: if people are willing to drive in their cars to go to the gym to use a treadmill everyday, why not use a pacing machine to pace on in place of your floor? In some ways I think that Michaels work is a commentary on what people are willing to purchase, and the idea of excessive consumerism.
I find this piece interesting, but a bit unpolished. The description does not say if the piece was actually created or whether the photograph utilized was altered digitally. I would assume it was actually created as the video provided looks very authentic. The work itself is very minimalistic, but I love the idea of translating time into red yarn. It exaggerates the idea that emotions can be quantified, as if anxiety could be translated into the length of red yarn fallen on the floor after someone had finished pacing. I looked on the artists website for more information regarding the other projects in the series which the artist has developed and found a “foot tap amplifier” and a “sigh collector”, both ideas which make me very interested to know how the work is displayed and if viewer interaction is encouraged. It is hard to critique given the fact that I have not been able to view the work in person, but I do think the work is very unique and exploring an interesting philosophical and psychological concept. There may be some accessibility issues with the art pieces, as there will be a very limited audience able to view and utilize Michael’s work (only one person can use the pace machine at a time judging from the video), however I imagine this is a problem for all instillation pieces.
I would be interested to go see Michael’s work in a show, and I will definitely keep my eye out for any additions to this series he is working on. It seems to be small-scale passive art that encourages thought regarding the issues of quantifying emotions and how this can be achieved. The idea of exploring semi-philosophical questions through digital media is an interesting thought, and in some ways this study bears resemblance to a psychological or scientific experiment, in that it involves a subject producing a result to prove a hypothesis, and also utilizes technology such as computers to analyze and record the data. This correlation between art and other areas of study was one I had not personally noted before, and I think it is just one of the ways artists are drawing on technology’s use in art and technology’s use in other areas of life, and how these relationships can be investigated.
Talk about being proactive.
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