Artists' Tools and The Cultural Messages They Convey
In ancient times, finger nails, teeth, fingers, and tongues comprised the anatomical tool chest that performed every life-sustaining function. Humanity might have remained dependent upon this set of tools were not for the existence of human cognition which soon invented ways to expand the tool kit with sticks, stones, plant fibers, hides, sinew, and bones. The work performed by tools received a massive boost when the mind’s analytic powers discovered mechanics, levers, screws, gears, wheels, and pulleys. Even greater tooling potentials were unleashed when the mind’s inventive powers harnessed non-human sources of power. That is when cattle, water wheels, wind mills, steam engines, internal combustion engines, electricity, jet engines, rocket technologies, and nuclear power were successively enlisted to serve the human demand for tools. By augmenting both precision and power, these energy upgrades extended the range of human manipulation both microscopically and macroscopically. Today, robots assist micro-surgery, rigs drill two miles into the earth, cranes lift massive weights into the air. The stirring narrative of humanity’s tooling history can be summarized by comparing the carving potential of finger nails, stone flakes, metal blades, power saws, dynamite, sand blasting, pneumatic chisels, hydraulic excavators, and laser beams.
Utilizing our bodies as tools to gather information and fabricate objects has diminished as dependence upon technologically sophisticated tools has grown. Few people today discern the acidity or alkalinity of soil by tasting it, or estimate the temperature of the oven by noting the color of the flame, or smell if rain is expected. Likewise, few artists rely exclusively upon their fingers and biceps to conduct their creative acts. But successfully passing an environmental impact assessment of a studio practice is not dependent on such extremism. A more moderate alternative simply involves considering, for example, the differing environmental impacts of scratching the earth with a finger, a spade, or a diesel-powered bulldozer, even if all the resulting scratches have the same dimensions. Speed and labor-saving are not the only aspects of tool selection for eco artists. They also attend to the fact that tool selection involves consideration of the materials and processes of tool manufacture, use, and distribution. As such it considers the tool’s impact on birds, mammals, plants, air quality, water purity, open space, and human beings. For eco artists, ‘mainstream’ art may not be defined in terms of gallery and museum contexts. It may refer to the main stream of environmental processes and connections.