New Addition: Squeeze Candle

Dan Mikesell- Statement

My interest in material culture can be traced back to my experience growing up in rural Indiana, where as a young artist my palette was limited to whatever materials were readily available. I was drawn to cast offs, junk, and forgotten objects whether digital or analog in nature.

Structure continues to play a central role in my work; how things are built, their intended use, and the ways in which they can be reinterpreted. My work in developing interaction systems has on one end focused on sound objects and mechanized objects on the other.

In the sound projects I investigate aspects of sound like music, noise, or language. Part of this is due to my belief that art should perform. It should be active in some manner whether it is activating a space or is itself physically, or acoustically active. The spectacle of performance is very important to me especially in relationship to my experimental musical instrument series. The working prototype instrument is only a fraction of the finished work, the whole work is realized only when the instrument is played.

The mechanized objects I have built including a robot with a prosciutto carapace are not the conventional means by which robotics are commonly understood. Part of this is my reaction to humanities desire to impose an organic appearance to robots. I am also interested in manipulating the form of electromechanics and investigating how mechatronics can relate to our daily lives.