Darkest Before Dawn is a surrealist abstract new media sculpture that uses the manipulation, reflection, surveillance and projection of the screen image to jointly celebrate and critique the power of mediated technology. Its increasing modes of communication/presentation and the control technology has over Us. The Voyager 1 spacecraft is right now transiting through the heliosphere and on to the interplanetary medium, it is punching through to a new a horizon. Down here on earth all systems indicate a possible new technologically mediated world where the screen image merges with our natural modes of perception. It hasn’t happened yet; our current condition is pre proliferation of technologies like the Oculus Rift, Google Glass and omnidirectional treadmills. 

The sculpture is an assemblage of static objects, media technologies, and natural substances. The attempt is to create something pleasing to the eye and senses by utilizing the traditional modes of line, form, color with the inclusion of sound and smell. Various methods of control and chaos are alluded to in the way the various elements interact with each other.

Nicholas Maurer, Darkest Before Dawn, 2014, installation with digital technologies with sound