The juxtaposed imagery from these disparate sources revealed structural similarities, while creating a disjuncture between the handmade and the mechanical through print and paint.  My print Transmission Dreaming juxtaposes visual language from Australian aboriginal artists with fractal geometry and the image of a computer chip.

These juxtapositions suggest similarities between ancient cultures and high technology, and that high tech may not be so new but just be another mapping system. I am interested in what that tells us about ourselves.  And the possibility that humans have an innate need to understand our world by using tools to process, organize, and codify information into a world view.

For the past 40 years, my work has incorporated ideas from science and technology, crossing boundaries between digital media, drawing and painting. During the 1980’s I expressed my premonition of an emerging cult of technology by juxtaposing images of hi-tech and non-Western cultures. I photo silkscreened enlarged fragments of computer chips, circuit boards, DNA helixes, and molecular structures onto wood panels.

Through juxtaposition and overlay, I handpainted ancient tribal motifs and geometric fractal forms, generated from an early graphics program. To further explore the fetishsizing of technology I experimented with support structures and formats; creating long vertical totems.

Carter Hodgkin 2023