Silicon Landscape
The artist describes the Silicon Landscape as follows:
“The ‘Silicon Landscape’ is a metaphor for a western landscape. Silicon is an element found abundantly in nature and abundantly in the deserts and Rocky Mountains of the American West. Silica occurs naturally as quartz, agate, and flint and is used in making glass, abrasives, adhesives, and insulation products.
“‘Silicon Landscape’ also represents a particular kind of silicon-based computer chip: a ‘neural net.’ Neural nets mimic some simple functions of a nervous system. The ‘Silicon Landscape’ senses changes in light levels, motion, and temperature and passes the information on to the computer for interpretation. The computer responds with sound and instructs the silicon landscape to display light patterns as if it were saved in memory in binary numbers. The ‘Silicon Landscape’ is a metaphor for landscape as a living organism, complete with sounds one might hear in a silicon landscape.
“The design is based on a hexagonal grid. The hexagon is nature’s most efficient stacking pattern, found where mud cracks, on the backs of some turtles, in the bark of some trees, and in the cell structure of human bones. The colors of the work represent those of the American Southwest.”
Hart Hill described the work in Westward as follows:
“A jigsaw construction of sandstone, glass and sandpaper-covered board, this model landscape is wired like a solar-energy experiment. Photosensitive switches jut from hexagon-based “tiles”; each solar switch operates a series of lights. Wind sounds whisper faintly from a computer and speakers that oversee the piece. Approaching viewers trigger the lights and sounds, making the installation interactive. A thought-provoking sculpture, ‘Silicon Landscape’ subverts the desert motif of Western art. The sand-based elements force us to contemplate advanced technology rather than view a banal retread of familiar imagery.”
More Installations
Well-Hung Field Hands, Harpies, and Soft Outhouse were made in the late 1970s when Laura was on the faculty of Black Hills State College (now University) and were displayed in publics spaces on the campus.
