TECHNOTOPESMan and technology are inextricably bound. The use of technical aids is what distinguishes the human being from the animal, even more so than the use of language.
History of mankind began more or less seven million years ago, when our ancestors started making tools. The human being depends on technical supplements which complete, strenghten and relieve his abilities. Thanks to technology the Homo Sapiëns rules the world. Modern people live in so-called “technotopes”. Our situation is comparable to the people in the movie The Matrix who are encarcerated in artificial wombs. Although made by man, technology almost always obtains its own dynamism. Not because of an own free will, but because of all sorts of unforseen side-effects. Technological developments are difficult to detain, surely so in combination with a capitalistic market-economy which is aimed at continuous innovation and development. I wonder: - How manageable is the modern information-technology? - Does the human society already experience a “cold Apocalyps” in which spoiled and bored people live in the illusion of a virtual reality and are nothing else than consumers without compassion and without authentic aspirations? These unanswerable questions could lead to fatalistic doom-mongering. Technology has contributed immensely to the secularisation of the modern community. It has enabled modern men to take increasingly his destiny in its own hands, independent of the almighty God. On the one hand technology might have replaced religion and magic, on the other hand it can also be seen as a continuation of such by other means. Because of its uncontrollability it represents to many of us that which is beyond our control and defines us from the outside. Total destruction does not need a revenging God anymore. At the same time technology also brings us much welfare and blessings. Without it the battle against hunger and illness is unimaginable. On top of that the development of technology represents pre-eminently the triumph of the human ingenuity. Fascination and shiver: those are two reactions on the fast development of technology, contradictory and present at the same time. This is the tension I experience as an artist. With my research and the images I express in my drawings and paintings, I look for a confrontation with new, maybe unimaginable choices, social and moral dilemmas we encounter. I cannot and will not give an unambiguous message. My goal is to touch the viewer and invite him to give a personal reflection on this subject.
TECHNOTOPES 'The world of high-rise buildings, traffic-arteries and industrial complexes. Form, rhythm and dynamic. All possible sorts of light: the sun, hardly visible or not, footlight and neon, orange, yellow and ice-blue, and darkness. Shivers and excitement at the same time.'
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