Vanishing Point is a meditation on industrial automation most prevalent in the first half of the 20th century. The installation combines wagons and carts used by factory workers in Lewiston’s industrial textile mills, and piano rolls used to operate player pianos, a popular leisure activity during the same period.
Simply put, industrial looms and player pianos were operated by information stored on perforated paper or cards. The frequency and location of punched holes embedded data that was transmitted to the complex machines. By “feeding” this data into the loom or piano, people operating these machines are able to create something, textiles or music, nearly identical over and over. Both are forerunners to computers.
The wagons and carts were returned to the derelict mill buidling they were borrowed from at the close of the exhibitions.
Vanishing Point, 2015, factory wagons and carts, piano rolls, 48 inches x 34 inches x 50 feet. Part of The Piano Roll Project, Bates Mill Complex, Lewiston, ME. July - October, 2015