Josh Baum

Description

My works are generally conceived of as instruments: where an event at the heart of the work serves as a lens through which a particular subject can be observed.

For example: a rolling bead of water can be used to read a text by Heraclitus, where the work is constructed as an instrument around the event allowing us to control the size and speed of the droplet.

But through the building of the work, there is often a conflation where the subject and the instrument become one. For example where although the instrument begins as a way to magnify a text, it ends up being more about observing the nature of water. Watching water with water. This method seeks to produce reflexive instruments and engage with notions of autonomous or conscious objects.

The method can also be understood by thinking about an old watch: an instrument for measuring the passage of time, but which is also an analogue for the fact that time is passing.