D. Machines for Making
These models differ from the pavilions in character and intent. They diverge from the idea of considering place although some are to be found in places with particular characteristics. Each is a mechanism for producing qualities I deem to be necessary in the world. Their mechanical and electronic workings are indicative of the machinic means that can be necessary to produce such qualities.
16 Machine for Making Grace
There is a distinction to be understood between the graceful manner of operation exhibited by the machine and its production of chosen aspects of grace.
Its own movement, achieved through similar machinic means to a flight or F1 simulator, is gracefully balletic although it must unavoidably emit pneumatic noises. The tri-partite structure on the top platform parallels the many sculptural representations of the Three Graces – those beautiful goddesses Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, daughters of Zeus. Sculptures and paintings of the three mostly imply interconnection and a collective spatial interweaving. Here, the three sets of pipes and their controllers perform this tripartite spatiality against the background of an adjustable mesh deflection screen but hint at graceful yacht-like possibilities.
The characteristics of grace are formulated by the machine and offered, free and unencumbered, to the world. There are numerous and varying accounts of the qualities the three Graces possessed and bestowed on people: Aglaia is characterised by terms such as splendour, brightness, and radiance, Euphrosyne by joyfulness or mirth, and Thalia as youth and blooming. There are differing tales derived from either Greek or Roman origins but apparently originating in their being goddesses of fertility. It is hard to argue that this past is a strong contributor to the etymological history of ‘grace’ as made by this machine, although the word can be traced back to Latin origins. Dictionaries will give descriptors for grace involving poised elegance and refined moving, or ideas about polite ways of behaving.
The essences of grace concocted by the machine are bestowed on the breezes by the machine to be captured by chance. They will face difficulties in much of the modern world where the powerful, the extreme, the noisy, and the rapid are celebrated, and grace is overrun.
Base: 252mm x 102mm. Model: 268mm x 150mm. Height: 247mm.
Initiated: March 2011. Constructed: April 2011 – September 2011.