ARTWORK DETAILS
David Aston
ULO Rotary
Antique one arm bandit and unidentified mid 19th century tintype photographs
2010-11
73 H x 49 W x 20.5 D cm
FURTHER DETAILS
The Unidentified Living Object (ULO) Series includes sculptural photographic works which explored the transient nature of identity, context and value through the curation of anonymous antique photographs. These early works came from my historical research into the invention, evolution and social assimilation of photography in the mid 19th century. Antique photographs of anonymous sitters were purchased and recorded before being recontextualised as artworks, commodified and turned into objects of gamification, altering the contemporary appraisal of their age, provenance, personal and social value, and exposing the potential for both copyright and copywrong in the recontextualisation of historical and personal objects.
ULO Rotary is an antique one arm bandit with mid 19th century American tintype ULOs (ferrotypes or direct positive photographs printed on meta|). The machine is fully functional and interactive. It lights up, rotates, and like all works of gamification, rewards viewers for delivering patterns which meet the predetermined rules of the machine.
ULO Rotary was my first sculptural sociotechnical work and included the first use of adapted ready-made antique machines to express the reinterpretation, chance, randomness and gamification often associated with human machine interactions. A device revisited for the sociotechnical and AI future predictions of The New Oracles series.
EXHIBITIONS
2011 | The Rooftop Gallery | Soho | London