ARTISTS
God Bless This Circuitry
God Bless This Circuitry by TATE SHAW This portfolio is one of twelve fictional episodes involving a churchgoing father and son. Each part of the
Tate Shaw / Afterimage
Nov 01, 2007
God Bless This Circuitry
by TATE SHAW
This portfolio is one of twelve fictional episodes involving a churchgoing father and son. Each part of the story is assembled out of the memory or use of a machine they have in common. The artists` book of the same name gets its title from the post-9/11 United States, just after the attacks, when the phrase "God Bless America" was omnipresent. The project points to two metaphors for the machine: that it resembles the mind and that it lacks humanity. The reference to religion plays a large part in the mind-machine metaphor. For instance, we may think of religious zealots as machines in that they are often hardwired and programmed through subjective readings of historical texts. Of course, we are aware that certain groups understand texts of the past to be prophecies of the future; millions of people believe in an afterlife and this belief dictates their contemporary existence. I see this as a form of machine-like automation. This automated state is explored in the book through the use of Christian propaganda. Tracts are printed ephemera: short-lived, freely circulated, often meant to alarm, instruct, and convert those who encounter them. In the book, pictures from such religious tracts provide arbitrary signifiers literally drawn as circuit lines to parts of the story. All of the images seen here came from an archive found in a filing cabinet, bought second-hand in Rochester, New York, by photographer Luke Strosnider who was unaware of the hundreds of propaganda items inside. The book, God Bless this Circuitry, is available from Preacher`s Biscuit Books (www.preachersbiscuitbooks.com) and contains an accompanying CD of music by Andrew Sallee.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Visual Studies Workshop, Inc. Nov/Dec 2007. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
by TATE SHAW
This portfolio is one of twelve fictional episodes involving a churchgoing father and son. Each part of the story is assembled out of the memory or use of a machine they have in common. The artists` book of the same name gets its title from the post-9/11 United States, just after the attacks, when the phrase "God Bless America" was omnipresent. The project points to two metaphors for the machine: that it resembles the mind and that it lacks humanity. The reference to religion plays a large part in the mind-machine metaphor. For instance, we may think of religious zealots as machines in that they are often hardwired and programmed through subjective readings of historical texts. Of course, we are aware that certain groups understand texts of the past to be prophecies of the future; millions of people believe in an afterlife and this belief dictates their contemporary existence. I see this as a form of machine-like automation. This automated state is explored in the book through the use of Christian propaganda. Tracts are printed ephemera: short-lived, freely circulated, often meant to alarm, instruct, and convert those who encounter them. In the book, pictures from such religious tracts provide arbitrary signifiers literally drawn as circuit lines to parts of the story. All of the images seen here came from an archive found in a filing cabinet, bought second-hand in Rochester, New York, by photographer Luke Strosnider who was unaware of the hundreds of propaganda items inside. The book, God Bless this Circuitry, is available from Preacher`s Biscuit Books (www.preachersbiscuitbooks.com) and contains an accompanying CD of music by Andrew Sallee.
COPYRIGHT: Copyright Visual Studies Workshop, Inc. Nov/Dec 2007. Provided by Proquest- CSA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Only fair use as provided by the United States copyright law is permitted.
PROQUEST-CSA, LLC- MAKES NO WARRANTY REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, OR TIMELINESS OF THE LICENSED MATERIALS OR ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.