Four interactive works by Neil Mendoza, Iván Navarro, Camille Utterback, and Robert Rauschenberg are on view in SITE Santa Fe’s newest exhibition, INTERPLAY, open through February 13, 2023. Selected from the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation Collection, these installations are activated by the body with the intent of enhancing, disrupting, and altering perception, calling attention to the dichotomy between art and technology. The role of the audience is unique to the ever-changing composition of each piece, creating an interdependent relationship between artist, artwork, and viewer.

Robert Rauschenberg, “Eco-Echo VI” (1992–1993), acrylic and silkscreen ink on aluminum and Lexan with sonar-activated motor, 88 x 73 x 26 inches, made in collaboration with Saff Tech Arts, Oxford, Maryland

Eco-Echo VI, 1992-93
Acrylic and screen-print acrylic on aluminum and Lexan, sonar-activated motor, steel, bicycle wheel, chain

Robert Rauschenberg’s Eco-Echo,1992-93, is a part of a series of windmill-like structures that Rauschenberg began fabricating at Saff Tech Arts in Oxford, Maryland, upon his return from the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Of particular concern to Rauschenberg were that these works should not waste energy and that the viewer should play an integral role. Thus, these sonar-activated sculptures respond to the presence of a viewer moving nearby and stop when no one is directly in front of them. Donald Saff oversaw the mechanics and construction of the aluminum and Lexan fan blades, onto which Rauschenberg applied silkscreened imagery and paint. Rauschenberg created the Eco-Echo series to illustrate how viewers are complicit in electrical-energy production, its global industries, and our environment.