File:Sentient-gate-joebattleartist.png

English: "The Sentient Gate Project”

This sculpture takes the form of a purely postmodern aesthetic. It works in tandem with technology partners. It is centered on the creation of a shared experience. Reacting to each individual differently, Sensing how each stands within the light, It may react with a gentle sigh or the soft intake of a child’s breath.

We feel the impulse to touch its reflective surface. We see our own image reaching towards us. It senses our touch and responds with music or the sound of rain. We are lost in the moment. And for a time viewer and artwork blend in an embrace of the senses.

Once a blue bird flew across my field of vision. It landed in the grass in front of me. In the bright sunlight its color was resplendent, and the movements of its flying were flawless. It was in that moment I realized this was the perfect sculpture, one that could interact and react with its environment, one that was also exquisitely made.

Why the title "The Sentient Gate"? It is because throughout the centuries sentience has been perceived as a gateway to our Divine nature. How do we define the Divine? It is, after all, that place where consciousness resides. If sentience is our ability to reflect upon our actions, then we must also say that sentience is a path to the Divine.

"The Sentient Gate" is a title which attempts to embed the mythology of human thought, regarding the Divine, into the experience of a sculpture.