Frank Duyker comes prepared for our interview. Eager to illustrate the merits of his perhaps unusual materials, the sculptor removes three unlikely objects from his pocket. There is a brown square ceramic block with gold plates and pins arranged on the surface, or a CPU chip circa 1989, as he likes to call it. There’s a hard disk which resembles a very shiny CD. And finally, a read-only memory: a small, rectangular, brown chip with a silicon chip the size of an infant’s fingernail inside, which Duyker can point out through a little window. They are quite beautiful things; Duyker holds them like gems.
Originally a woodcarver, Duyker has since shifted his creative practice to explore the artistic potential of the guts of vintage computers, which is the focus of his most recent creations. Over the length of his career his body of work has traversed a range of mediums: his sculptures are made of cast concrete, ceramic and glass, and he’s also created kinetic sculpture and mosaics. Duyker’s contribution to the 2015 Uncommon Places, a site-specific installation series produced by Melbourne Fringe, is a mixed-media work entitled Combobulator, which includes the sorts of objects that Duyker cups in his hands.
A self-confessed hoarder, Duyker rescues these bits of tech history from the rubbish tip, people’s front lawns, and offices undergoing refurbishment. Duyker is a rare breed of sculptor who also holds a degree in electrical engineering, so it’s not surprising that he finds beauty in unlikely places, such as the contents of machines which are used every day but rarely, if ever, seen. Duyker’s background in engineering has informed Combobulator, which explores the relationship between those who design and sell novel technology and those who purchase it.
Combobulator is a fictitious product. How Combobulator works and what it does is expressed in the sort of mystical techno jargon intentionally unintelligible to the public. It is impossible to work out what Combobulator is used for but it succeeds in impressing viewers with its complexity, including its mysterious ‘dolphin brain technology’.
Duyker describes his relationship with people in the technology industry as love-hate: while he loves their work, he finds that, as people, they can appear disinterested in the world outside their field of expertise. At the same time, they’re tasked with creating and selling products to people who often don’t know a lot about what they’re buying. Combobulator demonstrates the great disparity in understanding between these groups. Certainly there’s a lot of trust involved as most people don’t understand and can’t understand the functionality of every piece of technology they use, and at the same time, there is potential for exploitation. This sculpture will strike a chord with anyone who has pretended to understand what a salesperson is talking about when they purchased a new laptop, camera or phone.
Combobulator can be found in window of the Errol St Salvation Army Op shop from the August 11 until October 4. It seems like a peculiar place to exhibit a sculpture, but as Duyker says, “I’m all about recycling”. And sometimes you can find treasures in an Op Shop.
