“Machine and human have begun to fold onto each other. In turn, this has created what I refer to as a ‘second skin’. It is through this new skin that we have begun to access memory and identity. A possible endgame to all this may be less dramatic than we had originally thought. For it is not the machine, which will rise up to embrace and simulate the complex nuances which define humanity, but the exact reverse. We will, in turn, succumb to the machine’s own limitations, adapting to its own vision and language of what it means to be human”. (Naccarato 2009)
Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) 20’W x 17’H x 16’D, Installation. Partial overview of VP2: left center. Artist Studio, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Vertebrae, Part 2 (VP2) Installation, Overview
The Skinning of Memory, Part 2 or VP2 was completed during the second semester of my Masters Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Ottawa, 2009.
VP2 was meant as an exploratory extension of my first childhood chimerical experience, as well as the possible chimerical and transformative outcome of technology’s relationship to memory through objects.
Image 09: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Partial Overview. Artist Studio, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada 
Image 14: VP2 -Center, Detail – two hollow glass containers covering small mounds of sugar and in the far background, the right side wall of VP2, showing a simulated construction of spinal-like cord system made up of sewing paper patterns, internet cable and wiring and acrylic paint. 
Image 06: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Partial Overview. Artist Studio, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada 
Image 06x: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Partial Overview 
Image 06b: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Partial Overview. Artist Studio, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada 
VP2, Naccarato, 2009 – Lower Left Wall, Detail – painted floor, canvas, electrical and coaxial wire 
Image 11: VP2, Naccarato – Top Right Floor, Detail -Coaxial Wire, whole and stripped, wood canvas stretcher, painted floor 
cropped: Image 10: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Detail. Objects 
Image 08: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Detail 
Image 07: John Naccarato, Vertebra, Part 2: The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Detail
The methodology behind the construction and development of VP2 simulated an archaeological and anthropological approach – the unearthing, examination and reconstruction of objects, discovered in and around the University of Ottawa campus and city of Ottawa.
Below are links to texts related to The Skinning of Memory (VP2) Installation that were published as part of my MFA Thesis, 2010. Specific segments have been revised and updated for this post. John Naccarato, 2022