Artist Spotlight: Rowan Mersh

Conceived almost 40 years ago by Archigram’s cofounder David Greene, The Electric Aborigine encompasses the notion of an individual consciously acting as a vessel for amalgamation of electronic and natural (nonelectronic) environments in the seamless creation of a new environment. A product of the audiovisual piece The World's Last Hardware Event (1967), in which we are challenged to imagine a world where man can wander, carrying his architecture in his pocket (perhaps originally a preemption of mobile technology and its affiliation with the user), The Electronic Aborigine serves to integrate or dissolve an individual into any given environment.

The exploration of these notions lead to the manifestation of Electro-Social-Camouflage, commissioned by the Architectural Association, London. More an embodiment of concept than functional garment, ESC is intended to create a new, virtual environment as a live, chameleon-like response to the environment it occupies. Constructed from 30 mobile phone screens/board cameras and various manually manipulated fabrics.