Mechanical Masterpieces

Neil Mendoza

I chose to observe Neil Mendoza’s Mechanical Masterpieces which was part of the Tough Art program. The work consisted of a gallery of virtual paintings which visitors could manipulate using mechanical elements like a crank or a switch. For example, the painting of American Gothic had a series of gears and a cord that when pulled down revealed a disco ball along with other surreal elements.  

As with most of the other exhibits, most of the visiting groups consisted of a parent and a child with the child’s age varying from around two to six years old. However, there were some occasions where the parent was not present and I found that this greatly impacted the child’s interaction with the work. When the parent was present, they would often give context, explaining that the images represented famous paintings. Without the parent to give context, on the other hand, most children seemed more interested in the mechanism than the picture. One child spent several minutes playing with a set of switches without even noticing the effect it had on the picture above. This may have been due to the child’s height and the placement of the picture as the picture was often above the child’s line of sight. I also noticed that children tended to favor one of the paintings. These children would first go around exploring each of the paintings but would then become almost fixated with one of the paintings and spend several minutes either playing with the mechanism or staring at the screen. Overall, I think this exhibit succeeded at engaging both children and parents, though at different levels.

Rather than being placed in one of the main rooms, this exhibit was situated in the hallway outside of The Attic near some of the other Tough Art exhibits. Since many of the Tough Art exhibits involved light, the hallway was dimly lit which helped the virtual paintings stand out more. The one of the exhibits in the adjoining room was also fairly related to Mechanical Masterpieces in that visitors could manipulate the text on the screen by changing how they moved or held their bodies.