Technological Disasters now Outweigh Natural Disasters

Brenton Alexander Smith

Opening 01.11.18 6-8pm
Artist Talks 23.11.18 6-7pm

This exhibition aims to explore the point of connection and disconnection between humans and technology, using the car accident as its central anchor. The sculptural works in this show have been made using car parts sourced from sites of accidents and scrap yards. The video works are controlled accidents made using video game software. Most built environments have been shaped by the invention of the car. The construction of roads has shaped our cities and created links between different human habitats. There is a co-dependency between human and car, the human relies on the car for its daily routine and the car requires the human for maintenance. This relationship is intimate, but also impermanent. The works in this show can be seen as remnants of these relationships after some kind of disaster has torn them apart.

The title of the show is inspired by a chapter in Paul Virilio’s book The Original Accident, in which he references a study conducted by an insurance company in the early 2000s. This study showed that among disasters that exceeded $35 million in damage, 70% were a result of technology. The technological disaster, or accident, tends to be overlooked in imaginations of the future. A lot of popular science fiction promises us a world where technology erases all the inconveniences of life. Technology has indeed achieved many amazing things. However as Virilio asserts, the invention of the ship was also the invention of the shipwreck. New technologies come with new forms of accident. As humans become more and more intimate with technology more is at stake when these relationships are disrupted.