“SouthestNET: Techno”, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ 12/17/05 – 5/20/06.
From text exhibition text:
The life of the high tech cleanroom research and development engineer is one of constant restraint. When working with micro and nano-scale technologies, one must be painstakingly careful not to damage the devices; this means keeping everything free of particles (hence the clean and aseptic rooms and suits), preventing any vibrations (using vibration isolation tables), maintaining ambient conditions, and implementing extreme restraint in handling. The extent of physical exertion involves tweezers, microscopes, mouse clicking and constant meticulous calibration. Your hands become dainty and weak from the latex gloves, your skin turns a Victorian white, your muscles slowly atrophy. Working on the micro-scale, unable to use any real bodily force, you lose touch with your primal desires; your sexuality shrinks down to the scale of your work; hence the title, Aphanisis, a term first used by Freud’s biographer Ernest Jones, to describe the fear of losing one’s sexuality.
Exhibition text: SWNETBrochure.pdf
