[ISEA2015] Artist Statement: Daniel Jolliffe – NEAREST COSTCO, MONUMENT OR SATELLITE

Artist Statement

Electronic Sculpture (2014 – 2015)

Nearest Costco, Monument or Satellite is a networked sculpture that accurately points to the nearest Costco, monument or orbiting GPS satellite(s). As an artwork it explores how we form our sense of of place in the contemporary environment. It merges together ideas from sculpture, locative technologies and the subjective human sensation of where we are. The work is arranged as an array of networked electronic pointing sculptures in fl ight cases, with each sculpture containing the electronics required to control a pointing arrow held above the case by a telescoping mast. In practice, a central control unit directs the sculptures to locate the familiar (Costco or a local monument) and the unfamiliar (the locations of orbiting GPS satellites). This performance of technologically-assisted direction fi nding, produces a swaying field of arrows that point to locations in choreographed poetic movement, and is governed by materiality more than information.

  • Visual and media artist Daniel Jolliffe’s work traverses many disciplines and interests including sculpture, interactive art, sound, public intervention, performance and open-source culture. The goal of his artistic practice is to challenge and query how embodied conscious experience is changed by the intervention of technology. He is based in Montreal.

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