Infra-idol Assembly (Thinking the Unthinkable)

Steven Claydon

This work draws on Claydon’s research into the material reality of the world at an atomic level. Sampling footage from the IBM stop-frame animation 'A Boy and his Atom' (2011), Infra-idol Assembly (Thinking the Unthinkable) features a stick figure composed of individual atoms. The piece asks the audience to question the signifcance of human logic in relation to the vast elemental power of nature, and explores how scientific enquiry can resemble artistic or philosophical speculation in its frequent application of hunch-based creativity and decision making.

For Claydon, the idea 'that one might take the building blocks of the Universe and reconstruct them in the image of man' demonstrates the human race's tenndancy for excessive self-confidence.