Source and Destruction

				Alan Giddy
				
                
           Artist's Statement		
             Both pieces were provoked by Rudolph Steiner's 
             questionable statement "everything in the universe is 
             made from light." I hypothesized that if everything indeed 
             were made of light it would therefore be deconstructed by 
             light's incessant bombardment. After consulting physics 
             professor John Smith of the University of New South Wales, 
             Sydney, Australia, I came to realize that this 
             deconstruction did in fact take place with many materials.
				
				
				
               


                                         
                                         
                     
             Clock(above) was the first work to deal with this theme 
             (light as both giver and taker of life). The plaque on the 
             front of Clock reads "THIS LIGHT WHEN ACTIVATED WILL     
             COMPLETELY DISSIPATE THE WOOD SPECIMEN WITHIN 350 YEARS. 
             12.5.93."A thoroughly analogue construction, the light in 
             Clock will (by breaking the carbon bonds holding 
             the wood together) evaporate the wood in it within 350 years.
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
The Hours Remaining in the Life of Allan Giddy The Hours Remaining in the Life of Allan Giddy is a digital construction. It is a backwards counting machine. I calculated how many hours I would have left to live based on the average life span of a New Zealand male born in the 1960s, then programmed this information into my small machine and set it running. I took care, allowing the machine to retain memory (using capacitance) during "night-sleep" periods when the display disappears while the "machine" counts more slowly. Somewhat more theatrical than Clock, this piece, while counting the hours remaining until my presumed demise, is in fact an autonomous agent, freed from its maker while contracting its rhythms and pace towards its own demise from its independent reaction to the light around it. Allan Giddy, 4/157 Curlewis Street, Bondi Beach 2026, Sydney, Australia. E-mail:agiddy@aspana.org.au

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