O|M

Hello, my name is Madtheeha. I am using a basic speech synthesizer to help me talk to you all about my ideas and inspiration so that I can focus on dissecting this battery. You may ask me questions at the end, if you wish to. You are also free to come closer and take a look at what is inside this device. It is very simple. I will begin now.

This is a graph explaining my concept of how ritual and technology exists in a cyclic / reciprocal flow. oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My hypothesis is that art bridges the gap between ritual and technology.                                                                    Technology is inherently ritualistic (the way we approach, use, and understand technology mimics our use and approach of ritual practice) oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

browsing the internet via theiese black mirrors is akin to the ancient practice of divination through scryyng

even through similar catoptromantic devices like this one nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn .

In parallel, ritual practice is inherently a technology – for example (I’m speaking of us as a society and as a species) communing with god and the dead is achieved through the technology of prayer. aaararararararararararrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaarararararararararaaaararararararararara

My work and process often involves symbols that are based on the following binary classification system. In other words, this classifcation system aids my process of symbol-making. Examples of WARM | ANIMATE | WET technologies are drawing, clay, metalsmithing, writing, singing, bio-tech, communications, telematics, indigenous, and early technologies. Examples of DRY | INANIMATE | COLD technologies are cutting, engraving, processing, programming, machine-based, software, copying, broadcasting, western and recent technologies. iesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesiesies

The practice of artmaking encourages self-authoring and persona fluidity--this is important to me as a woman from a particular Muslim background that often left little room for personal development outside of a specific set of parameters. For me, the art object serves as a poetic and political technology of communication. ememememememememememememmemememememememememememememememememememmemememememememememmeememmememememememememememememmememememememememememememememe 

In my exploration of this interaction between ritual and technology, I use the concept of the black box as a starting point for artistic production. In technology and new media theory “the black box” is a term that describes the situation where a particular technology is mysterious to the user.

My attempts to open the black box of certain technologies, namely the battery, has developed into works that uncover the elegant physical reactions that generate electrical charge. In deeconstructing a cheap, factory-produced item I deconstruct the magical form, uncovering metal and lithiam electrolytes. I then re-cast the technology, using ritual symbolism, through battery weavings (another work in the Oracle Modem series) and ritual blood-letting. inginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginginging

Obtained | Retained [blood battery] requires my body to produce electricity.

I use tooo technologies to obtain enough blood to charge the work: a warm, ritual blood-letting practice known as hee jaama and a cold, medical removal process using patented Vaccutainer technology. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The title of this piece references the extreme difficulties in obtaining blood from my own body—there is some incredible irony at work here regarding body politics.

And, I even see parallels to alternative energy politics and ecology.eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

One of my direct inspirations for the Blood Batteree comes from ancient Aztec sacrificial practices.

This is Lady Xoc – she is depicted here receiving a vision through her blood sacrifice. Ancient Aztec peoples used blood sacrifice as a way to appease the sun or to receive information about impending wars and agricultural concerns (among other things). This culture, like many others throughout history, have utilized blood sacrifice and blood letting as a technology to cure, catalyze, and atone. Lady Xoc is unique in that she is one of the few women in Aztec history who are reputed to have done so. Un surprisingly, historians believe that this technology was reserved for powerful men. menmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmenmen—

I see a poetic connection, however spurious, between blood sacrifice (for the sun and sun gods) and this property of blood that facilitates quantifiable energy/electricity. I choose this presentation – simply the voltage produced – to highlight this poetic coincidence—only the suggestion of energy measured. A black box recast, alchemical and bodily. eyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

This portfolio contains twelve black-and-white screenprints, none of which has an individual title. Each print brings together a photograph, selected from Deacon's own extensive photographic archive, and a smaller ink drawing. Deacon's personal archive contains both clippings of found images and his own photographs. He loosely categorises them under a number of headings in order to identify and delineate certain unintended repetitions in his choice of subject matter. By choosing one of his own images from most of these groupings, Deacon arrived at this selection of twelve photographs. The earliest photograph dates from 1988, the most recent from 1996. The photographs are grainy, atmospheric images of either natural forms, such as trees and rock formations, or of the interaction between the natural and manmade environment, such as an industrial pipe encased in a thick layer of ice, or a wooden statue worn by the elements. The ink drawings were produced, independently of the photographs, during an intense period of work in the Summer of 1996. They have been superimposed over the photographs as a kind of 'stamp' in either the lower left- or right-hand corner. Deacon has then produced a silkscreen print of the combined elements in order to create an image in which both the photograph and drawing form part of the same continuous surface.

The drawings are simple and diagrammatic in nature, highly suggestive of organic form. Deacon has commented in unpublished writings that 'the process of matching drawing to photograph was intuitive but in each case there is a reciprocal relation of some sort between the two'. For the viewer, the connections between photograph and drawing remain largely ambiguous. However, in many of the images one can identify visual counterpoints that link the two. For example, the wooden statue of a saint carrying a lamb and the bible is juxtaposed with a drawing of interlocking biomorphic forms. The wavy contours of Deacon's line drawing echo those of the lamb's curly fleece and establishes a visual connection between the two.

According to Charles Booth-Clibborn, the publisher of this portfolio, these images literally 'show and tell' how Deacon has used photographs of natural forms as sources for his sculptures. Many of the drawings certainly recall the open linear structures of his work in laminated wood, such as For Those Who Have Ears #2, 1983 (Tate T03958). Some, like the drawing that accompanies the wooden statue, evoke more 'solid' sculptures such as Struck Dumb, 1988 (Tate T05558). The series was printed at Coriander Press in London, and was published by Charles Booth-Clibborn under his imprint The Paragon Press. It exists in an edition of thirty-five, of which Tate's set in number thirty-three.

Further reading: Jon Thompson, Pier Luigi Tazzi and Peter Schjeldahl, Richard Deacon, London 1995. Patrick Elliott (ed.), Contemporary Art in Print, London 2001, pp.36-45, reproduced pp.37-45. Jeremy Lewison, 'Contemporary British Art in Print?' in Patrick Elliott (ed.), Contemporary Art in Print, London 2001, p.18.