Some people who see my sculptures, assume that it’s about AI, that that is what the robot stands for, AI taking over and subjugating humanity, like in Terminator or the Matrix. And although I’m definitely influenced by the science-fiction I grew up with, that’s not so much what I’m trying to say.

It’s more questioning than statement, more reflecting than judging, and trying to do that in a playful way.

The way my creative output ended up where it is now, in a way flowed out of the materials I’m working with. It felt right that through my metal working skills, with the metal, found objects, plastic, etc, I would represent the technological, the synthetic, the artificial, the robotic, as one side of things. And on the other side, through my woodworking skills, with wood I would represent the organic, nature, life, humans and other creatures. And then explore the relationships, the juxtapositions, the conflicts and co-operations between these sides, as they make a weird whole, forever in tension.

The robot stands for the Machine. Not machines in general, but the machine as a metaphor for the technological organisation of our society, and the direction of the evolution of that organization.

When I think about what the tech oligarchs with their empires are doing, how their platforms are run, what incentives are prioritized, how the algorithms are designed and for which outcomes, what they are aiming for, as they fight for dominance, what this does to life, to the kinds of life we can have in this civilization, things seem bleak to me.

It is their quest for ever greater control. Their dream to have everything, all interaction, all functioning within society, all services, go through their platforms, mediated by their technology. That’s what AI is meant to be, it seems, a cocoon that envelops you and provides your interface with the world. Everything monitored, tracked, stored. Everything you do transparent to the owners and administrators of the tech, all the way down to biometrics. With complete subjugation of the human spirit as a goal.

Whether Artificial General Intelligence is possible or not is beside the point.

It’s a specific way of approaching life on Earth, that imposes it’s will, and that insists on being blind to whatever doesn’t match their imagined Sci-Fi utopias, including being blind to the consequences of their own actions and ambitions for life on earth.

I think a lot about those consequences, and about the carelessness and the arrogance of the misguided civilizational attempt to subjugate nature with technology.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m not against technology: I love my angle grinders, and rotary tools, and welding machines, and all they allow me to do. It’s the ideology of conquest, domination, subjugation of the very life forces, the nature we are part of, and where all that will lead us that I’m concerned with, and that I’m trying to give some expression to by letting the materials speak and stand for something.