Abstract:
This terminal creative project report is the written accompaniment to the art
exhibition Machines of Loving Grace, originally installed at Ditch Projects in Springfield,
Oregon in May 2024. As such, it examines the contexts and implications behind the work
and the media it contains. At its core, Machines of Loving Grace recreates and reexamines
Crash, a 1996 David Cronenberg film based on the 1973 novel by J.G. Ballard.
The goal of this introduction is therefore threefold. Firstly, to give the reader a basic
understanding of Crash, in terms of plot line and thematics. Secondly, to outline how Crash
has been integrated into broader visual culture, focusing on its popular, artistic, and
theoretical seepage. Finally, to answer the question of why Crash deserves revisitation,
especially within a queer context, given that it has already been rehashed several times in
the fifty years since its publication.