Brooklyn-based artist Ted Lawson’s newest piece Ghost in the Machine uses a pair of rather odd mediums: a robotic printer and his own blood. Always experimenting with using technology in his art, Ted conceived of the way to make his creations more organic and human by using this odd method.
As Ted sips juice to keep his blood sugar up, the IV draws his blood and feeds it through the machine. A robotic arm attached to the printer has pre-programmed instructions on the design to draw, in this case a nude self-portrait of Tom. But exact perfection was not a goal; Tom intentionally allowed the machine to make mistakes and left in glitches to keep a sense of realness or spontaneity to his art.
By showing our increasing dependence on technology using a nude self-portrait created from his own blood, Ted intends to make the piece more raw, deeply personal, and meaningful. In this way, he wishes to “reveal the underlying code that is present in all things.” View Ghost in the Machine at the Joseph Gross Gallery in New York, running September 11th through October 4th.
