“The Mouse Mandala” I have been working on an ongoing body of work, “The Mouse Series” or "The Obsessive Mouse" since 1997. One work from this series is called “The Mouse Mandala”. The work is a large-scale floor installation assembled entirely using the cables from discarded computer mice woven together to create a circle. The origins of this work are varied. For one, I am very interested in the computer mouse as a cultural icon for the digital age. Every dead computer mouse has gone through a history of use – individually traveling literally hundreds of miles and potentially thousands of hours of computer time until they are no longer functional or become obsolete/useless. I view each mouse as an individual record of a human machine interaction, of work, play, distraction and mediated interaction. By combining these mice into a woven mandala, they collectively become not only an embodiment of their collective histories, they exist as a monument to technological obsolescence. I am also interested in the religious aspect notable in the given title, “The Mouse Mandala”. Our obsessive use of machines permeates our cultural moment with a fervor and intensity that one might view as a type of worship. Creating a sculptural mandala using these iconic objects creates discordant references that playfully fuse contemporary technology with a type of faux religiosity. Finally, the work was partially inspired by my interest in the history of the 19th century Luddite movement in the United Kingdom. I have spent some time in Northern England visiting sites that were used to imprison workers who rose up against the industrial revolution – a time frame representing the largest domestic activation of the British military to quell a violent uprising. Weavers and craftsman were seminal to this movement. Using computer mice to create a weaving thus pays tribute to these doomed revolutionaries while at the same time possibly calling attention to the modern equivalent of the 19th century factory, the Silicon Valley cubicle. |