Alan Rath

Alan Rath’s work aesthetically is as appealing to me as say the work of Tony Oursler, I think more than anything what draws me in the is the human nature that exists within the technology of such artists works. I was directly influence by Alan Rath’s pieces such as When is Now, 2001. I like the idea of eyes being portrayed through a monitor and giving the cold nature of technology a life of sorts. For Rath he says “I was interested in the tradition of people looking at art, and art being a passive object that people go visit.” “This is the first time that art can actually look back at you, It would be interesting if objects being observed could recognize you, the way people remember a piece.”

To interact with a Rath Sculpture is to be suddenly confronted with an awareness of our own behaviors, warts, social programming, and all. We are being mocked up and gently mocked by Rath’s robots, an experience resulting in both sheepish grins of self-recognition and existential wonderment at the oddity of our own attitudes. I this way it is said that Rath’s work is slapstick, commenting on our every day clumsiness i.e. wondering around attached to our ipods looking up occasionally at our own trajectory.

Much of Rath’s appreciation for his work comes after the objects have been created and are placed in the gallery for human interaction. Commenting on this interaction he says “I’m surprised when I notice people being intimidated by machinery,” “They took a machine to get to the museum, and they’re wearing machines. I like people who can accept the playful quality of it, and jus appreciate the experience.”

I am careful when looking at work such as that of Alan Rath to not be consumed by the allusion that such work could be within my grasp technically in a small time frame. It is not necessarily my intention to want to crate robots, and or kinetic sculptures, for me I think it is more the relationship he is able to set up through the imagery alone, it is this component that I think is most interesting. Much like my interest in the projections of Oursler’s work. It takes an insane amount of skill to produce works such as Rath’s. He is an artist that studied physics and electrical engineering a the Massachusetts institute of Technology. Co-Chair of the Science Board at the Santa Fe Institute, Murray Gell-Mann, writes: Rath is able to design and build his computerized sculptures all by himself, and they appeal to he scientist in me as well as the art lover. One can think of these creations as robots, but that word seems to imply that they serve us in some banal capacity. Instead they serve to entertain us, stimulate our thoughts, play on our feelings, and excite our imaginations.

Bing, Alison. "Meta Mechanics." Sculpture Sept. 2006: 35-39. Print.

Rath, Alan. Alan Rath: Robotics. Santa Fe, NM: SITE Santa Fe, 1999. Print.

Druckrey, Timothy, and Charles Stainback. Iterations: the New Image. New York City: International Center of Photography, 1993. Print.