Invisible machines

Just like ivy grows on the outside walls of a house, technology similarly wraps the human body becoming its new skin. Sometimes we even merge what we see in monitors with real life. Technology that would have been considered futuristic in the past, does not surprise our eyes anymore. And now in the reality we inhabit, machines, devices, and networks exist side by side in a shaky parallel.

The exponential growth of technology is practically invisible, and we no longer notice that the cleaning lady in the cafeteria was replaced by a tireless robot vacuum cleaner. Technology became the equivalent of plants – we spend our precious time watering them with upgrades, cutting the branches of useless extremities, and watching them grow into more advanced creatures. The machines even immigrate into us, and vice versa, by ways of robotic body parts and remote controlled drones.

But this technological evolution promises to raise a few theoretical questions: being aware of the presence of machinery, looking through the eyes of the machine, cohabiting with a machine – what does it make us feel? How many devices and codes “run” around us on our train ride home? Do we feel a constant presence?

Looking at the “drawing machine” created by Kanno and Takahiro Yamaguchi, I can just imagine a world where analog graffiti artist creeps in the shadows of doorways to turn dead walls into living canvases. It is repulsive, yet enchanting.

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