Fellows

Public Machines Repurposed for Private Usage - Fabiano Marques

Fabiano Marques ( Brazil )

A research about the possibilities of the use of public machines as tools for making objects.

The aim of this project is to explore machines provided by the government and subvert their ordinary functions in formal, poetical and conceptual experiments. The importance of being public - that belongs to all the people and are provided by the State - is to explore the tension between the private and the public, bringing awareness for what is there that can be used as a way of empowerment to the people.

As a starting point, the machines I have in mind should work in similar ways to the ones found on wood and metal workshops, which have the functions of bending, cutting, drilling, pinching, punching or twisting materials or to attach materials one to another. On a second phase, other more abstract machines should be included, as well.

Also, the project includes an exploration of the legal aspects of the appropriation of public machines - on historical records of what has been done with permission or concession and what has been done illegally. For this, a research on a maintenance department of machinery of a public organ for registers of occurrences of misuse of public machinery for private purposes can lead to a public exhibition of the archive.