MACHINE BREAKERS

Organizer: Nathan Meltz

 

Participants:

Terry James Conrad, Raphael Cornford, Justin Diggle, Andrea Ferrigno, Ruthann Godollei, Jessi Hardesty, Dusty Herbig, Taryn McMahon, Dylan McManus, Nathan Meltz, Daniel Ogletree, Katie Ries, Jenny Schmid, Ericka Walker, Thorsten Dennerline

  

ABSTRACT

Machine Breakers will explore the reactions of printmakers to the automatic and systematic world around them; a world where technology has infiltrated every facet of life, from family and food to politics and war.

 

The term Machine Breaker is a reference to early industrial era British textile workers who, inspired by the mythical “General Ludd” of the Luddite movement, smashed the automated textile machines that threatened to displace their jobs. With contemporary examples like laborers displaced by robot arms on the automotive assembly line or the replacement of unionized cab drivers by driverless Uber vehicles, where are today’s Machine Breakers?

 

Machine Breakers hopes to present a diverse interpretation and reaction of this mechanized world, from critique and distrust to devotion and fascination. Themes related to technology artists may explore, but are not limited to, include: co-option, revolution, infection, symbiosis, destruction, and dystopia/utopia.