David Bowen, artist

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David Bowen is an installation artist who specializes in kinetic artworks and robotic systems. He graduated with a BFA degree from Herron School of Art in1999 and then continued on to receive his MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2004. He is now an art professor but is still actively creating work.I discovered his work on rhizome.org where his installation titled Remote Sonar Drawing Device immediately caught my eye. The device consisted of two sonar sensor arrays, one placed in Minnesota and the other in Spain. The sensors placed in Minnesota corresponded to the drawing arm that was in Spain and the sensors in Spain controlled the drawings in Minnesota. The audience was encouraged to stimulate the sonar sensors in both places. Below is a map of the distance that the information had to travel before being converted to a physical form as an artwork.

I decided to investigate his other installations and found that many of his pieces incorporated robotic technology into pieces design to document some sort of personal experience. The theme of nature is very prominent in many of his installations which is a rather different subject matter to express in such a technological advanced medium. For example, David created a hydroponic system which fed a plant. As the plant grew, it activated a scanner and printer which printed an ink jet photo every 24 hours of the plant's profile. It provides this very logical "computer-ish" documentation of a plants growth. It's almost as if the plant is trapped in a facility with tubes coming in and out of it and it is being forced to have test preformed on it.


This is an image of growth rendering device installed at the Rochester Art Center. It produced a 50 foot scroll of drawings of a pea plant as it grew, thrived, whithered and died over a 3 month period. (taken from David Bowens Website to better descibe the picture.)

On the most basic of levels, I believe that the two contrasting concepts were presented in such a way because they represent the ways that technology exploded and how it has left many older ideas in the dust. On the other hand, it is also a way to present a linear drawing in a completely new format, one that detaches the artist from the paper. Instead of actually drawing, the artist is creating an idea which indirectly is creating its own art.

All information taken from David Bowen's Website on Rhizome.org
http://rhizome.org/profile.php?1042811