Artist: Arnaldo Morales

1. How does his ethnicity or place of origin affect his work?
2. How do the machines relate to the content?
3. Are his pieces interactive or are they inaccessible?

1. His place of origin doesn't seem to integrate directly into the content of the pieces or into the active process of viewing the piece. The initial conception of the idea behind his pieces do relate to the rather traumatic experience of someone holding a gun to his head. He also researched in a community that had a significant problem with violence. It seems reasonable though that his work could easily be influenced by other locations; the work is more informed by experiences which are common to many places than by the specialty of a place.
2. The content of the work appears to focus on violence and anxiety in various areas of life. Creation of Morales' machines distills the experience down to a small, seemingly controlled object. Giving the viewer a sense of control over the anxiety sets the viewer somewhat at ease with the trigger of the stress.
3. In a way his pieces are interactive. Going back to the triggering of anxiety, there is a type of somatic response that is as primal as one can get as far as communication. There is also a larger cognitive response that one has that tries to decipher the experience and than create an understanding of the experience. Which is where his pieces deviate from a real life response. There is the opportunity that he brings together that further dialogue is then able to take place.

1. Is this a one trick pony?
2. Is there or can there be more content be introduced?
3. Does the aesthetics of his pieces ultimately hurt them from being viewed by a larger audience?