Shawn Smith
Artist Statement

My conceptual and material practice explores digital identity, color, colliding systems of information, labor, technology, and science. As an object maker, I am interested in relating these concepts back to the symbiotic connection between the hand and the “thing.” This relationship is a basic principle in the development of the modern human--biologically, psychologically, culturally, and scientifically.

For my Rapid Artist project (Swarm) I was interested in creating a collision between a chaotic and natural form, like a swarm, and a complex, man made thing like a musical instrument. For my project, I re-fabricated a French horn made up entirely of hundreds of flies, printed as one 3D object. For me it is an opportunity to investigate how a computer controlled system can recreate a natural, highly complex, and unpredictable system of nature.