Scott Eakin: A Line in the Code

These paintings reflect a sense that I am part of a universe of people, ideas, and things much larger than me and beyond my control: a line in the code.  The experiences of the last two years have made me less certain about what I can control.  In the time of pandemic and the time of algorithmic surveillance, it is hard to maintain the belief that I, or any of us has true agency.  

I accept that I am subject to instructions that arise from natural systems, which are unimaginably complex and which affect every aspect of my life from the color of my hair to the weather to the food I eat.  I am always looking for the ways that things fit together, where the edges, intersections, and boundaries are located.  This habit of thinking appears in my paintings in both obvious and obscure ways. 

What has occurred to me recently, is that we are now also subject to instructions that are man made and so deeply integrated into our lives that we are hardly aware of them.   I am less sure that these man made instructions are beautiful or benign.   These ideas manifest in the paintings as new tool forms, diagrammatic elements and forms that suggest schematic diagrams or electronic symbols or punch cards. 

I believe that the complexity and beauty of the natural world is a source of humility that is critical to our survival. The desire for the simplifying assumption and the faith that we have the one true answer is a path to tyranny.  The challenge is to remain awestruck.