James Seawright

born 1922 Jackson, Mississippi
educated at University of Mississippi & Art Students League, NY

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[11]  Crosby, Kinetics

Network I, 1968-69
Metal, plastic, electronic parts
Size () x () x 45
Collection the Stable Gallery, New York

answering questions from Douglas Davis

"... I generally think of motors, lamps, circuits, etc, as they are used in my sculptures as having little interest in themselves; it is the way they are integrated into a functioning system that strikes me as the essential application of contemporary technology."

"There is nothing about the materials that imposes a different kind of limitation than the limitations any other materials impose on a sculpture ... Working directly with the materials as I do, I find that here is a great deal of spontaneous arrangement and rearrangement possible with the possible components of a given piece."

"I suspect that as more and more artists begin to concern themselves with the possibilities of technology, there will emerge a more general view that technology simply offers extraordinarily powerful tools for accomplishing the aims of artists, just as it has enabled people to fulfill many of their material needs."

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[28] Cybernetic Serendipity

"Scanner, a cybernetic sculpture, which Seawright made in New York in 1966. It is 70 inches high and 105 inches wide. It is constructed with metal, plastic and electronic parts."

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[07] Beyond Modern Sculpture by Jack Burnam

-compliments Seawright for the most technically accomplished cyborg art

quote from the New York Times
"The machines process information. Their cells and sensors collect information on light and sound, and they behave accordingly. My aim is not to "program" them but to produce a kind of patterned personality. Just as a person you know very well can surprise you, so can these machines. That's the crux of what I want to happen."

Searcher, 1966
Burnam - "Instead of Searcher's simply reproducing the same program or settling into a state of equilibrium, the condition of its previous states determines the variety of its future states, just as new stimuli would."

often the experiments in a laboratory are an unexciting assembly of mechanical parts, and work in a studio is an unintentional parody of technology

Seawright is able to fuse behavioral and visual features into the same system

"I do think it is possible to consider the processes and principles of technology as a medium for art just as validly as a conventional artist might consider wood, stone, bronze, paint on canvas, etc., and all the old precepts about understanding the nature of the medium, etc., are just as true here."