"Zoe" is a work created for the NCAD second year sculpture exhibition. It combines man-made and natural technologies to create an interactive piece which participants can explore through touch.
The installation is comprised of a repurposed computer monitor fitted with magnets mounted on small motors below a liquid-filled ferrofluid screen. Below the monitor, small wires snake outwards to a variety of objects- Animal, mineral, and vegetable; Solid and liquid.
When the participant touches a number of these objects, a response will occur by way of the magnets shifting, and hence the magnetised ferrofluid will follow. The relationship between the interactions is unclear, and the chain of events is hard to predict.
Through interaction, the "user" is implicated in the chain of events that follow, yet the contraption whirrs and moves independently. Does touching the rubbery solidness of the alginate produce a different response to dipping one's finger into the water? Does touching the Buddleia leaf with two fingers produce a different effect in the swirling ferrofluid matrix than one?

Zine Page created to accompany the work in the exhibition publication.

The inspiration for this work came from reflection that so much of our interaction with technology in modern times has become a sort of 'magic', where the lightest touch can create action and effect towards the user's will. Despite this, there is a contemporary alienation from the alchemerical materials that so much hardware is made from- gold, silver and crystals. Within the piece, I wanted to explore the idea that by interacting with any system, we are made part of the circuit, and to create a boundary permanence between the self and the other, and to highlight the Zoe, or life force potential of non-human actors.