The Productive Machine
This body of work reflects my continued research on the development of industrial culture throughout the 20th century. Artworks from this series draw inspiration from Marx's theory of reification, Sigfreid Kracauer's writings on scientific management and examples of collective optimism including Busby Berkely's dance routines and the 1939 New York World’ s Fair.
Subjects represented in The Productive Machine played a significant role in defining America's utilitarian culture and lifestyle of freedom.
The work visualizes principles of efficiency, standardization and utopianism, that coerced modern Americans into the greater mechanism of mass production. Entertainments including select films and musical productions throughout the 20th century, indicate the extent to which mechanical thought infiltrated the minds of both America’s most creative thinkers and their audiences. Modern Americans began to identify themselves through the propagandizing motifs of mass media and New Deal cultural idealism, which ultimately promised a shining future for the country through industrialization. Artworks in this series portray American optimism and utopianism through the lens of both historical and contemporary industrial culture.