Settle in, this is gonna be a long one...It all started when an army of ants attempted to expose my laziness and abnormally high tolerance for filth. Once the threat of genocide by human hand had passed, they commandeered my empty cereal bowl, surrounding the honey residue in the absence of a treacherous milk lake. Their tiny black segmented bodies formed intricate chow lines around the transparent sweet spots at the depths of the vessel.
I of course viewed this as a premeditated coup d'état. It is a constant battle to find their source and effectively eliminate their entry into our kitchen. This act is in vain because ants are guided by an evolutionary foraging force much greater than my strategic anti-terroism road blocks. I began to wonder about our relationship... the ant and I. Our biological similarities and differences. Ultimately, I wanted to find a way to exploit their laborious nature and high contrast shape/color for my artistic gain. There is a certain anonymity i desire to maintain in my creative process. a work made by a hand other than my own. a denial of responsibility and identity. I like the marriage of hand made and computer produced work for this reason.
Through the genius of google books, I found a text to explain the inner working of man, ant, computer, and beyond. It was mind blowing. Ants have 2 stomachs, one for personal nourishment, and one which acts as a storage unit that does not lead to a digestive tract. The contents of the storage stomach are expelled in a certain chamber of the colony where other ants come to feed from it. Ants have "city dumps" and "cemetaries." The queen ant is the sole controller of population and vitality of the colony, but she does NOT delegate power or exert control over ants or the colony in any way. Once she leaves, the colony will live out its generations and cease to exit.
I began to envision a piece where in my brain's ability to conduct itself outside of the realm of a greater colony good could manipulate the very opposite in the ant's brain. power. It interests me that these powers of manipulation seem the very basis for the decay and disintegration of human society... the reason why communal living is biologically impossible for humans of certain culture. I decided to focus on the seven deadly sins as reference point to the pitfalls of freedom of choice. Visually speaking I paired them with places in the body I envision them residing.
We have created the technology for internal scans like X-ray and MRI and their processing software based on algorithms and binary code with emergent qualities, much like that of ant society. No leader cells, no bosses. unaware of a self in the human sense. The tech system like an ant colony emerges on the collective chaotic work of millions who are unaware that they are working to build a greater system, inside a greater system, inside an even greater system. They are unaware of the option to walk left while everyone is going right. They are biologically, or electrically/numerically bound to their path.
We use these scans to show us flaw of bone and tissue. When perhaps our greater flaw is that we can never be like ants, or like the technology we create. We exist in a system where everyone has a self, an agenda, bad or good. They have solutions to better the system, to better the human race, to save the world. What I venture to say in this series is that by using our individualized human brains and through the power of choice in trying to change the system, we invariably ruin our chances of attaining the proper communal system we seek.
ENVY resides in the skull, as do the eyes. I associate envy with vision and realization of the "haves" and have-nots." it is superficial. "it's all in your head"
WRATH resides in the guts and affects the lungs and heart. Anger boils inside behind the belly button, sears through your stomach and makes the
heart irrate, which flurries the lungs. Rage affects the entire torso and
leads the extremities to take action.
LUST resides in the pelvis. It houses the sex organs. It drives our
population in both agenda and number. The legs attach to it so it may be carried to its desires.
PRIDE resides in the feet. It is born of our individual "walks of life." It is what we stand on and for. It is dangerous when blind.
GREED resides in the hand. It allows us to take when we feel entitled, and is large enough to grab more than we need. It grasps at that which we desire.
GLUTTONY resides in the jaw and the neck. It is most commonly associated with food consumption.
SLOTH resides in the collar bone and shoulder blades which I associate with laziness in posture and motivation. softening of the erect human. devolution of the physical nature of man by the comforts of convenience.
