Another exhibit that would be of importance would be the "Information"
exhibition, also in 1970, that included Haacke's "Visitor Profile"
(using paper and box technology). I think the manner in which Haacke
responded to issues of technology may be of use to the discussion:
"The processing speed of the computer makes it possible that at any
given time the statistical evaluation of all answers is up to date and
available. The constantly changing data is projected onto a large
screen, so that it is accessible to a great number of people. Based on
their own information a statistical profile of the exhibition's
visitors emerges." from the Software catalog
"The artist's business requires his involvement with practically
everything ... It would be bypassing the issue to say that the artist's
business is how to work with this and that material ... and that the
rest should be left to other professions ... The total scope of
information he receives everyday is of concern. An artist is not an
isolated system ... he has to continuously interact with the world
around him..." Quoted in Jack Burnham, "Real Time Systems"
(quotes lifted from Shanken's "Art in the Information Age,"
http://www.artexetra.com/ )
Also of interest: the version (of "Visitor Profile") exhibited at the
Jewish Museum apparently didn't function. I'm assuming that it has
since been made to work for Database Imaginary...
Shanken's discussion of the works of Haacke, Levine and Kosuth
positions that the difference in display questioned below may be in the
desire to encourage or avoid the iconography of technology. This would
seem to hold for either mechanical or digital data representations. I
think the DBI show exhibits a tendency towards avoidance in how it
discussed the issues, but in the aesthetics there seems a bit of a
fetishism of the technology, especially in the charmingly retro images
of file cabinets and bulky computers paired with more contemporary
images that suggest lists, code, charts. Of course, this criticism is
somewhat empty, as how does one deal with work that is obviously about
data systems yet doesn't display evidence of the technology.
ryan
> In relation to this sense of past histories, I was interested to note
> that Gloria Sutton has an interesting article just published on
> Rhizome, which looks at 3 historical shows: The Museum of Modern
> Art's "The Machine as Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age" and the
> Institute of Contemporary London's "Cybernetic Serendipity"1968, and
> The Jewish Museum's "Software", 1970. In particular, she points out
> that Hans Haacke's work (which is also in Database Imaginary) was in
> two out of these three shows, and presented in different ways
> according to the context.
>
> I'm wondering if anyne has views on any inherent differences between
> the presentation of mechanical versus digital data?
>
> Beryl
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