Artist Statement
DeLappe will describe his most recent work, a computer interactive, electromechanical kinetic, sculptural installation, “Masturbatory Interactant: The presentation will detail an artistic approach which seeks to create a synthesis between traditional sculpture, art history, computer based multimedia and automated interaction. The installation incorporates a Macintosh computer, video projection, electromechanical kinetic sculptures and machine automated interaction. The work consists of two major elements: one being a large clear vinyl enclosure, at the base of which three 24-inch cooling fans continuously propel a life site inflatable female party/sex doll, painted flat white. The constantly moving female form acts as the projection surface for time based imagery, the source of which is the second part of the installation, a kinetic sculpture consisting of an LCD video projector, a Macintosh CPU, a laser bar code scanner and a rotating “grinder” mechanism based on the Chocolate Grinder from Marcel Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. The imagery for projection, primarily of a combination of short, montage segments of digitized close-ups of a nude male figure conducting self erotic actions, text and computer animated three dimensional forms, are randomly controlled by the laser bar code scanner attached to a mechanical arm which extends and retracts, occasionally scanning preprogrammed bar codes which cover the constantly rotating grinders.
The author will discuss the development of this work as a continuation of his efforts to critically explore emerging issues and ideas surrounding the human-machine condition. As well, DeLappe will present more recent investigations of machine erotica, including the recently completed installation, Vagina/Mouse, Joystick, Hand, which features a large scale digital printwork and objects of computer interface design which have been sculpturally altered to become symbolically seductive objects of machine erotica.
- Joseph DeLappe, USA, is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno and the head of the Digital Media Studio in the Department of Art. DeLappe was the first MFA candidate in computer art to graduate from the CADRE Institute of San Jose State University (1990). His works in digital media, ranging from manipulated, experimental photographic portraiture to interactive, digitally controlled installations and electro-mechanical sculptures have been shown nationally, and internationally. Recent exhibitions include installations at the Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, Florida, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, New York and the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada. Past recipient of a Southeastern Regional National Endowment of the Arts Visual Artist’s Fellowship and a Nevada State Council on the Arts Individual Artist’s Fellowship. This past fall, he was a visiting artist at the Department of Photography of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.