This Conversation May Be Recorded for Training Purposes
Word count: 559
Paragraphs: 6
Dan Devine
Pierogi
Dan Devine, "Cascading Deterioration," 2002, Crystals, metal, surveillance cameras, monitors, electronics, 10' in diameter. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi.
The Boyd Cycle is a military strategy developed by Col. John Boyd in an effort to explain the success of U.S. fighter pilots in the Korean War, despite their having inferior planes. Boyd concluded that U.S. success was rooted in the flexibility of their approach, of their ability and willingness to change strategy based on ongoing assessments of an unfolding situation; Boyd codified this tactic in the “O.O.D.A.” directive—Observe, Orient, Determine, and Act. Now, the complex and continuously changing evaluations prescribed by the Boyd cycle are largely carried out by computer chips linked with elaborate networks of information-gathering satellites. Application of the Boyd cycle is not, however, limited to military strategy: A cursory search of the World Wide Web shows that the Boyd Cycle is regarded as a useful blueprint for an aggressive approach to competition of any kind, whether it is enemy fighters or business adversaries. That military strategy, technology, and business are intricately intertwined should come as no surprise.
Dan Devine, "Cascading Deterioration," 2002, Crystals, metal, surveillance cameras, monitors, electronics, 10' in diameter. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi.
The hanging sculptures which comprise Dan Devine’s This Conversation May Be Recorded for Training Purposes
"Faced with Defections," 2002, Crystals, metal, surveillance camera, monitor, electronics, approximately 2' in diameter. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi.
All of the sculptures in This Conversation May Be Recorded for Training Purposes, as Joseph Masheck points out in the excellent essay accompanying the show, resemble oddly cobbled together chandeliers. Not only do Devine’s sculptures link interior design with military and corporate reason, but they are also shabby and lyrical. The past eight months or so have been a reminder of the failures of sophisticated military and corporate strategies: terrorist conspiracies proceed unnoticed, the wrong village gets bombed, vast corporations unexpectedly collapse. Devine’s titles speak for themselves—“Cascading Deterioration Within the System” (2002), “This Chip Will Disintegrate in a Deceased War Fighter” (2002); his work suggests the hokey origins of technology, the troubling proliferation of military modes of thinking, and the inevitable flaw in the heart of the system.