Useful Tasks: Phil Aitken

Useful Tasks: Phil Aitken
Useful Tasks: Phil Aitken

This work explores the notion that from the time of the Machine Age, humanity has formed a reliance on the machine and on machine-produced consumable items. Writing in 1970, Ivan Illich stated that "The myth of unending consumption has taken the place of a belief in life everlasting". This idea is still relevant in contemporary society. The machine continues to have paramount importance, not only in preserving, sustaining, and advancing humanity but also in the deepening process of how we construct meaning and spirituality in a mass-production and mass-consumption society.

These studio outcomes are influenced by Industrial Revolution and Machine Age mechanisms but have no productive outcomes. Formally, they are a suite of sculptures that acknowledge an existential dilemma and futility, and suggest that perhaps machines have taken on a divine importance within adapting cultural systems and continued technological advancement.


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