cal functioning. BaquiT was a sculptor who, from 1980 to his death in 1996, took a found-object approach to assembling his large text-oriented, machine-driven sculptures. In his view the sculptures were experiments and "if the mechanism in the piece worked for a while, this was permanence enough" (Rochette and Saunders 123). Aside from mocking the notion of technical competence, however, BaquiT's works, with his laissez-faire attitude and the "obsolescence of his chosen electrical and mechanical components" also pose the "increasingly common conundrum" for collectors and museums of how to maintain technology-based art (Rochette and Saunders 123). But while Sherman's expertise and BaquiT's satire can be taken for granted in their chosen media, even those artists who have been exploring the potential of technological advances in video, holography, computers, or sound for decades often remain complete novices as technology outpaces them.
One of the core questions, however, is the basic problem of what constitutes a work of art. The basic problem is raised by work like BaquiT's in which the question arises regarding old issues such as the artist's hand in the work and the work fulfilling the function for which it was designed. This might not appear to be a different set of questions from those raised by restorations of damaged sculptures or altarpieces torn out of churches and set up in museums. But, as Rochette and Saunders note about BaquiT's sculptures, "if they are run, a number of them will sooner or later break down and require repairs, which risk being alterations; if they aren't run, they have already ceased to be the pieces they were" (123).
But the lack of a concrete art 'object' often seems to be endemic to technologically advanced art. The use of technology accompanied the rise of performance and conceptual art and, in many instances, remains tied to them. These movements were significant forces in breaking down...