Do you value some lives above others? Špela Petric's Miserables Machine: Soot-o-Mat is an artistic installation which questions the notion of equality between living organisms. Coming Saturday you will have the chance to meet with the artist and see her work in action. Over the course of 12 hours Špela will create two new graph-lampshades by dissecting and electro-stimulating mussels within the machine.
Soot-o-Mat is the first in a series of 'Miserable Machines.’ These machines are ‘unsuccessful’ hybrids between the technological and the biological. They are unsuccessful in that their aim is banal but a whole organism is sacrificed in order to fulfil that aim.
How it works
A small dissection is performed on the mussel to take out the part that keeps the shell closed. This part is then strapped to the machine lever. One end of the lever draws on the slowly rotating and rising glass cylinder; the other end is attached to the mussel. It takes about 15 minutes for one full rotation of the glass cylinder and so in six hours the cylinder will move just 20 cm upwards.
The mussel contracts and relaxes with electro-stimulation every 20 minutes. This contraction and relaxation is what draws the patterns on the glass. When a mussel is removed from its shell it still has some energy stored and so can continue working for another five hours. Once the life of the mussel is complete and the drawings have been made, the cylinder is turned into a lampshade.
Unethical Origins
There is, unfortunately, quite a high death toll with this installation, as not all mussels survive the dissection and die straight away. It is not the purpose of the project to kill these animals but to show that some lives are valued less than others. When faced with an electrocuted mussel powering an artwork, a different kind of empathy arises, but Špela would like to remind the public of the general mentality towards mussels when it comes to boiling and eating them.
At Mediamatic
The work is currently installed in the Mediamatic Haeckel Room and will stay there for another month. However, the live action will only take place on Saturday 16th. Come and watch the painstakingly slow process and gain an insight into the the hard work that goes into creating even the most banal of products. Are all lives equal?
Information Miserable Machines: Soot-o-Mat at Mediamatic. Live performance, Saturday July 16th from 10:00 - 22:00 Mediamatic Biotoop, Dijkspark 6, Amsterdam