Skip to main content

Robert Twomey’s Digital Media Installation at Westminster College’s Foster Art Gallery

Share on:

Posted on Monday, August 28, 2017

Westminster College’s Foster Art Gallery will host A Machine For Living In, a digital media art installation by Robert Twomey. The exhibition will run Aug 28 – Oct 13. There will be a gallery reception on Tuesday, Sept 12 from 4:30-6 p.m., with an artist talk at 5:15 p.m. The Foster Art Gallery is located in Patterson Hall on Westminster College’s campus. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

A Machine For Living In is a digital media installation using smart technologies to explore the home as a site of intimate life. Incorporating video, sound, and sculpture, the project showcases machine observers and memories of their experience installed in the artist’s home. Inspired by speculative science fiction and smart home technologies, this installation explores narratives of human-machine cohabitation. What emerges is a contemporary portrait of the everyday. 

This project seamlessly moves between disciplines, incorporating themes and methods of art, computer science, and communication studies among others. The technology used to create the installation, wireless sensors, cameras, microphones and computer vision and listening techniques all used to document daily life, highlights the amount of technology present and used in our own daily lives. 

Robert Twomey is an artist exploring human consequences of emerging technologies. Trained as a painter and engineer, he integrates traditional forms with new technologies to examine questions of empathy, desire, and the limits of human-computer interaction. Twomey has presented his work at SIGGRAPH, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the Seattle Art Museum, and has been featured by Microsoft and Amazon. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Youngstown State University.

The Art Gallery is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The Foster Art Gallery hosts four-six exhibits annually, including work by Westminster students and faculty. Regional, national, and international artists are also brought to campus for exhibits and lectures.

For more information, contact Summer Zickefoose at (724) 946-7267 or email zickefse@westminster.edu.