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Machines are extensions of us; they reflect our human assumptions, priorities and potential for error.

Finley Highton is an artist based in Glasgow working across physical image-making technologies, video and digital media. At the core of his practice is an architectural drawing machine. This acts as an interloper between his sourced images and the work that is produced, with the automated process pushing the method of image-making further away from his own hand. The image reproduction process is similar to that of a printer, yet it draws with a BIC Cristal Biro, slowing and disrupting production through the ‘human’ tool the plotter is given.

Using images focusing on transitory spaces, the work captures moments in time that feel fragmented, overlapping or suspended. These temporal shifts emerge through the tension between the materials he uses and the processes that act upon them.

Within these methods deliberate authorship is minimised, focusing on structures of control introduced by machines in order to question the relationship between human and automated systems in the act of production. This is achieved through non-choice, where traditional decision-making is set aside to allow the materials, process or external surroundings to determine the final outcome. The limitations of these non-choices inform the aesthetic qualities of the work produced.

The work is site-responsive, activated through its placement and relationship to the spaces in which it is exhibited. Adopting different forms of imaginative display and integration, the work engages with spatial systems and institutional structures, negotiating and critically examining the conditions in which it needs to exist.