G. Metzger
Metzger's piece is interesting because destructive art can last a few moments or a few centuries, but there comes a point where it is disassembled and removed. He used acid and canvas that would corrode the material within seconds. He compares rockets, nuclear weapons to auto-destructive art. It re-enacts the obsession with destruction and re-affirms man’s order in nature. Like the bomb it has complete control to destroy depending on how it is applied. Its opposite is auto creative art that promotes movement, change and growth. In the 60s this was seen as capitalism and the existing competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. I personally have a very hard time “destroying” art. I have done pieces that I've had to take down and throw away and it is not a very satisfying feeling. It would be interesting to create a piece that destroys and existing object in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and artful. I personally find it interesting to work with fire or water.
Valentino Braitenberg Vehicles: experiments in Synthetic psychology (A Bradford Book, 1986) *
Valentino takes an interesting point of view on machines and their "emotions". Rather than looking at machines from a mathematical or engineering point of view, Valentino analyzes them as if they were animals in an environment. Fear, aggression, love, and particular tastes these vehicles express due to sensors and motors are analyzed. Beyond this point, I find it incredibly fascinating. In our everyday life machines carry certain traits and personalities that allow us to interact with them in a certain way. A garbage disposal can be seen as "angry", and cars tend to have a personality depending on their movements and reactions to environmental changes. It gives these materialistic machines a sense of life or fantasy that is somewhat magical- like they have something greater to offer the world than just their function.