Silvie Deutsch | A Different Engine, 2014

the Experimental Media Performance Lab at UC Irvine

"A Different Engine investigates weaving as the foundation of modern technology. Site specific to the Experimental Media Performance Lab, which is in itself a network of outlets, wires, and computers, this new work references the history of computing: a history which began shuttling in and out of the punched holes of automated looms. Jacquard’s loom, which gathered threads through punched cards to regulate complicated patterns, serves as a beginning for abstraction and investigation into the fundamental act of making. The holes in A Different Engine direct string to draw lines through space; mindless repetition amounts to something bigger than its parts. Deutsch’s instruments teeter between use and uselessness like kites that cannot fly.

This work hovers in a place between theater and art as performers and viewers interact with the sculptural scape. While a set is sutured to its play, the making of A Different Engine becomes its narrative. Viewers can wind, pluck, and touch the work. The machine-like objects become extensions of the body. The viewers become part of the machine, and both are in a constant state of flux."

Silvie Deutsch  is an artist living and working in Southern California. She is currently working on her Masters in Fine Arts at the University of California, Irvine.  Check out her website HERE.