This project combines machines and their role in a visual arts practice with physical and cultural explorations of suburbia.

Public Collection Drawing

Artist: James Dodd
Project cost: $8,900
Location: This piece of art engaged people and places of the City of Mitcham.

The mobile machine with solar powered movements invited people to come up and talk to the artists while working and make drawings. Jimmy collected Soul Data within the City of Mitcham during February and March 2019.This project combines machines and their role in a visual arts practice with physical and cultural explorations of suburbia. James developed a couple of new machines, or drawing devices, these machines are curious objects that appear to have perhaps tumbled out of garden shed, they are used to create drawings that might be indicative or inherently connected to the public space in which they are created and that the act of using these machines is a point that is mildly performative and one at which audiences are encouraged to approach and engage with the artist. "I have also been curious about increasing cravings for ‘data’ within local government and broader authorities. This is creeping relentlessly towards the arts – a sector that can be difficult to negotiate numerically.  So – I’m going to try and ‘count things’ as a driving pursuit within this project.  I would like to try and count the things that are tricky to count. This will be a broad experiment, resulting in many conversations as outcomes and, hopefully, finding a way into drawings as outcomes".