I am dealing with ideas of mass production, structures as systems of control, and the environments we have built for ourselves to inhabit. I have been interested in creating small panoptic systems and models for/and of the suburban home/culture aiding in maintenance and surveillance. I have built (am building) objects to help generate discipline for all aspects of the home and its contents. This control extends to the lives of insects and the plants in and around the home. I have drawn heavily from B.J. Calhoun and his work with rat populations, B.F. Skinner and most Notably his work on The Pelican Project as well as Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon and from Irving Goffman’s ‘Relation’s in Public’.

Val Valgardson