Automated (2020 + 2023)
‘Automated’ presents a juxtaposition of early cinematic principles and urban experience. The installation meditates on the ubiquity of technology and how they function both inward and outward of our human experience. By using animation and analog mechanical movements to represent the cycles, patterns, and programming of daily life, the cityscape brings forth both a visual and sonic cacophony.
Each sculpture in the installation actualizes an animated image through harmonized intermittency or causes aberration through irregular motion. Viewers will find numerous ways to experience Automated by peering into windows and buildings, watching the cinematic cycles embedded in each sculpture, and making secret discoveries of light and shadow.
First exhibited at Automata LA in June 2020. Re-exhibited in April 2023.
This project was made in support of a grant from The Princess Grace Foundation - USA and the Hillenburg Family.
This project was developed in part through the Automata Residency Project, with support from the Jim Henson Foundation and the LA Covid-19 Relief Fund, funded by the J. Paul Getty Trust in partnership with the California Community Foundation.
Exhibition at Automata in Chinatown Los Angeles, 2023
Click Image Above to Play Documentation
From Automata:
“While in residence at Automata in Los Angeles, artist Ray Chang continued the development of his installation in-progress, Automated. Prior to his residency, Ray had fabricated most of the objects that comprise Automated, but he had not had the opportunity to work with on the overall composition of the full work, and to play with light and sound.
A complex arrangement of individual sculpture-machines, Automated is a representational kinetic sculpture of a fictional city. These sculpture-machines share a cyclical relationship to early animation devices, such as the zoetrope, mutoscope, and various automata. Each sculpture-machine is also an optical device, and a means of representing the constant rhythm that flows through the space, as through a city. Constructed by Chang from original 3D printed and wooden elements, Automated will be a singular experience for viewers.”
Selected Sculptures Detail:
