Absence of Motion: Stillness in Cars
Absence of Motion: Stillness in Cars
Student: Robert Creighton
Thesis Advisor: Paul Ryan
Abstract:Absence of Motion is a critique of the conceptual space of the automobile in our culture and the actual space that it occupies physically. The project is an investigation into the contradiction embedded in our relationship to automobility, motion vs. stillness. By abstracting the automobile physically and removing the context of motion, we are able to question the beliefs that underlie car culture. The accompanying video installation proposes an alternative point of view from which to view cars in our society. That leads to an opportunity to significantly redirect the public’s vision of what cars are and therefore allow people to see and feel other possibilities.
The rational behind Absence of Motion emerges from an exploration into our relationship with the automobile that moves beyond issues of pollution and oil use to expose the creation and consumption of both the physical and cultural space that the car occupies. The work provides a very real sense of what that space means. This is achieved through an understanding of our history with the car, the methods used in advertisements that help to foster the idolatry of the car, and works of art that reveal various alternative views of the car in society.