Responding to Heidegger

In response to Heidegger I would like to re-engineer dining lights into nature by forming them to a tree stump. I want the tree stump to speak to the nature side of Heidegger and though it will be a dead remnant of a living tree I think this will allow for the conversation to go both ways in order to speak to the living nature we are overtaking with our technology but also the decomposition of nature which we have over run with technology.  I want the lights to randomly turn on and off through a random set pattern using an arduino. The randomness will speak to the random arrangement of nature and its design, which we do not implicate through our technology. Although the randomness of the patterns of the lights will truly not be “random” due to the set coding done by the arduino, it will have no specific pattern for one to follow and distinguish. The lights will randomly turn on and off from one another and link up from time to time but with no specific agenda. The pairing up will speak to the relationship we as humans have we nature as we tend to be in sync at times by using technology to create solar panels in order to friendly harvest the suns rays as power yet most companies producing solar panels and the construction of such devices rely heavily on coal powered operations, being out of sync with nature.

The Log Light will be installed in a gallery setting but will have the same effects if installed outside in a meadow or in the desert. The log itself will be harvested from the forest in hopes to find a rustic log that shows signs of a stressed nature and the wear of time. The lights which will be attached to both ends of the log will be of a vintage quality, to hopefully hark to the age of Heidegger’s essay but any era will do just as long it is not present day. I feel it is important to have an aged log with dated lights due to the fact of the time period of which Heidegger brought up these issues. His points are still very valid today and still address some major issues we have with technology as we advance further and further into a technology driven land.  I will also be adding on relays to the project in order for the arduino to switch on and off the lights. My hope for the viewer when both lights are off to see a morphed, aged log with lights attached to both ends and question the purpose, as too is so much of Heidegger’s writing questioning the purpose and meaning behind technology and what is to become. I want the viewer to question when the lights might turn back on if they are to turn back on at all and possibly wonder why we rely so heavily on technology. These questions and more I hope to invoke through the viewer and have them contemplate through a viewed experience of my Log Light.