I dunno man?
Mark: Max, The Robotic Chair you are now developing collapses, falls to the floor and proceeds to seek itself out and reassemble itself employing a custom mechanical robot in the chair’s seat. This is the first object where your viewer has no say in the matter. While this project was conceived over twenty years ago, only now does the visioning technology allow The Robotic Chair to look at itself, “to seek itself out” as you say. Have we reached a new era in the dialogue between technology and man?
Max: Well what you are talking about is that The Chair has the ability to determine the degree of functionality. It’s a state of being. It’s pretty interesting that an object can control its state of being, that it can create its own look. Technology is an essential part of the concept here for it facilitates The Chair taking control and determining its degree of functionality and this in turn questions the role of technology and the extent to which we use and give over to technology. I don’t know if we have reached a new level. It’s why I am making it. I am interested in exploring that functionality. When an object has this kind of power, what happens?
I am interested in contributing to the dialogue about the nature of everyday found objects, which Duchamp initiated. Throughout the 20th century, the integrity of the object though has remained intact and has not been invested with any new abilities or sense of self. The fact that the chair controls when it will fall apart and reassemble itself certainly would suggest a sense of self.
