Hand of God

2014 | Art, Installation Art

Concept

Installation art piece exploring the relationship between humans and algorithms in a provocative way. The audience is seduced into believing that they are in control of the machine, only too late to realize that control is merely an illusion. The machine not only takes control but becomes decidedly evil. The audience must then accept the sacrifice of allowing the machine to be in control by facing the consequences – drinking the blood of a baby girl.

Background

It all started with a trip to Prague to attend the Signal Light Festival. One morning over breakfast as we were casually discussing sculptures that would destroy themselves in public spaces, we noticed the giant disturbing sculptures of the famous naked babies in the city – and the initial connection was made. What would be the consequence of people losing control over machines? How could we make an uncanny interactive art installation that would provoke an instant emotional response? With inspiration from Freud’s concept of the uncanny, the adventurousness of Coney Island, the way algorithms affect our physical world, ‘Hand of God’ was conceived.

Constraints

A significant constraint for this artwork was that we had to primarily use found materials for construction. As it happened, this turned out to be quite a blessing as we came up with many creative solutions for use of materials. An old windshield wiper motor was used to make a functioning servo motor for the hand movement, a water pump from an aquarium for squirting the liquid, and we went as far as casting the hand in lead (Pb) using a homemade furnace over an open fire.

Exhibitions

2015 - Aalborg Surreal #2, Aalborg
2015 - Aalborg Surreal #1, Aalborg
2014 - CREATE, Aalborg

Collaborators

Benjamin Hugo Lager
Jens Bugay-Hougaard
Radu Albutiu