The Argument Machine

Program, P.1825

Identifier
P.1825
Category
Visual Arts
Date
April 19 – 26, 2003
Description
Chris Baker’s The Argument Machine is a box that resembles some form of briefcase or luggage. Inside it the viewer can see a light, knobs, some levers, a VU meter—all encased in a bronze/gold metal casing. Sounds of computerized voices emit from this peculiar machine and they argue about art, technology and their personal qualms with each other. The work is about the progress of technology and its limitation—i.e. we can make a computer think but we can’t make it feel, and in reality anything it says or thinks is essentially regurgitated human information, never original thought.