Written by Dean Vukovic.

Whether by choice or nature, there is something distinct that happens when ache moves. Ache is tired but fickle, and travels in the face of its own impulse to stay still. It moves across time, across memories, across versions of the self and into the unknown. It changes those it touches, and abstracts them from what is left behind. Ache forces to confront patterns and events, either creating loops that break down its vessels or extending into far reaches beyond. The only way to move along with ache, is to endure it regardless. We do what we think we have to. We do what we can. And in doing so, we meet ourselves again having changed.

The kinetic, electronic and interactive new media works crafted by the students of RTA321: Intro to Tangible Media live in this situation of effort and uncertainty. These pieces exhaust themselves—moving towards mess and impermanence, aching to find a foothold. Despite their inherent instability, the works create points of contact and emotional engagement with their audience as they explore themes of miscommunication, the redundancy of mechanical processes, and the loneliness of the loveless and forlorn.

Angelo Govas’ “Leave a Message” uses a robotic hand to reveal the ways that communication can be controlled and manipulated using familiar symbols and gestures. The message exists only temporarily, and without language to define it. And yet, gaps are filled with what is known intrinsically and understood from upbringing. “Nerves” from Audrey Abergel-Preston & Raven Zhang Liu is a machine intentionally crafted to worry and break down upon observation. Drawing upon the human qualities found in the mechanical behaviour of machines in the vein of Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s “Can’t Help Myself”, the piece complicates the relationship between viewer and viewed art (as machine). The more it is watched and appreciated, the more it destroys itself, keeping a record of its own demise.

Grace Wilker’s “The Depths” echoes this anxious state with a fabricated tugboat expressing distress in Morse Code on its way towards a lighthouse. The piece feels reminiscent of folk tales and warnings as the object progresses towards darkness. Jen LeMoyne’s “Fortune’s Fool” draws upon childhood imagery to examine the learned concept of fate, through a puppet-esque rabbit and cards that determine its future. The playful yet heavy decisions that observers must make consider the notion of our Afters: what happens when your fate is decided and every subsequent day awaits? Do you trudge on or wait in silence?

Jade DeLuca-Ahooja’s “The Orange” and Jadyn Ma’s “ROBBY the Sad Robot” stand at thematic opposites. The former, inspired by Wendy Cope’s poem of the same name, celebrates the humanness of small gestures and moments. This rings truer upon interacting with the fake fruit, it comes apart and back together. ROBBY on the other hand, is a personification of artifacts and feelings: namely keepsakes and grievances.

As always, the final and total pursuit across a human life is time among life and death. Jessica Clarke-Joyce’s “Forgetting to Remember and Remembering to Forget” operates from this uncertainty and considers an amalgamation of lost memories from the perspective of those with dementia. One is reminded painfully of the agony of age, the final human progression despite reservation and fear.

Towards, Despite as a whole aims to examine the love and pain that comes with moving through and around people, places, artifacts and even spaces. We ask: Where has ache traveled? Where is its next point of contact? Where is it placed & to what end is it enveloping its surroundings, dissolving and disturbing what it has rested on?

We invite you to reflect and experience the tangible media found across projects in the Assembly Gallery in the Image Arts Building.