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UNTETHERED: A sculpture garden of readymades Eyebeam's Fall 2008 exhibition
Featuring: Jessica Banks, Ayah Bdeir, Michel de Broin, Max Dean, Paul DeMarinis Kelly Dobson, Germaine Koh, JooYoun Paek, Sascha Pohflepp, Hans-Christoph Steiner, Thomson & Craighead, Nor_/d (Addie
Wagenknecht and Stefan Hechenberger) and Joe Winter, curated by
visiting fellow Sarah CookSeptember 25 - October 25, 2008
Press preview: Thurs., Sept. 25, 11AM - 1PM (RSVP press@eyebeam.org)
Exhibition opening: Thurs., Sept. 25, 6 - 8PM Eyebeam, 540 W. 21st St. (btw 10th and 11th Aves.)
Michel de Broin, Dark Star, 2008
New York City, September 5, 2008-Eyebeam is pleased to announce
Untethered, a sculpture garden of everyday objects deprogrammed of
their original function, embedded with new intelligence and
transformed into surrealist and surprising readymades, including a
photocopier that reads the night sky; a PDA turned guitar; and a
piano that plays the Internet. The exhibition features pieces by 15
artists working at the intersection of art and technology,
including current and former Eyebeam residents and fellows, as well
as leading international artists. Untethered opens September 25 and
runs through October 25, and is accompanied by a downloadable audio
guide (available at www.eyebeam.org).Sarah Cook, the exhibition's curator, cites the art-historical
discourse on readymades, and current ideas concerning the designed
obsolescence-or shelf life-of consumable technologies as her
inspiration for the show. "The idea of the readymade hinges on a
mysterious quality of displacement, wherein objects are not just
decontextualized, but actually transplanted from one realm of
experience to another," Cook said."In researching the work of Eyebeam's resident artists I read [MoMA
curator] Margit Rowell's writing on the readymade and identified a
link to contemporary "hacks" and instances where artists have
deprogrammed technological objects in order to create a kind of
magical experience for the viewer." This "otherworldly" aesthetic
is evident in the works on view, such as in Michel de Broin's
sculpture Dead Star (2008), an inert asteroid of nearly depleted
batteries, and Joe Winter's Xerox Astronomy (2008), in which a
generic photocopier and desk lamp are transformed into elements
within the cosmic system used by an imagined observer.Additionally, as a show of objects that have been tinkered with,
invented, and allowed to be "generative", that is, open to
experimentation and other use, Untethered presents a deliberate
reference to the notion of "tethered appliances" (a term used by
Internet scholar Jonathan Zittrain in his book The Future of the
Internet and How to Stop It, Yale University Press and Penguin UK,
2008)-technologies, such as iPods or cell phones, that contain
proprietary software and are tied to single uses or networks. In
this, the exhibition ties into Eyebeam's recently launched Open
Culture Research Group, a forum for the investigation of free and
open source software and hardware.Both displaced and in some cases deprogrammed, the pieces in
Untethered ask us why we understand some things as useful hardware
and other things not. For instance, how does an inflated garbage
bag become a way to disguise your bike, as in JooYoun Paek's Not
Bicycle Cover (2008)? Neither prototypes nor edgy products, the
works in the exhibition will surely invite conversation on the
semantic barriers between the worlds of art, design and technology.Artists
Ayah Bdeir and Jessica Banks, both fellows in Eyebeam's R&D
OpenLab, have collaborated to realize a new work in the form of a
chandelier that is constantly redrawing itself (Chandelier in 4,
2008). Jessica Banks will also show her latest experiment in
creating responsive and interactive furniture: a table that appears
to levitate in its own magnetic field (Table, from the Cubed
Series, 2008). www.ayahbdeir.com, www.jessicabanks.comMichel de Broin, an internationally recognized artist from Montreal
who is based in Berlin, and winner of the 2007 Sobey Art Award,
will show his recent sculptures, including Dead Star (2008) and
Great Encounter (2008), an investigation into the isolation of
appliances. www.micheldebroin.orgMax Dean is an internationally acclaimed media artist from Toronto
and winner of the 2005 Gershon Iskowitz Prize for visual arts. His
piece in Untethered, So, This Is It? (2001), is a clock that wipes
away an image of its viewer's face, and has never been shown in New
York. www.roboticchair.comPaul DeMarinis, an artist based in California, will show a piece
from his series Hypnica (2007), a collection of hacked metronomes
that lull visitors with the voices of hypnotists. www.well.com/ ~demariniKelly Dobson, an artist based at MIT's Media Lab, presents her
responsive hacked technologies including Blendie (2003 - 04), a
blender that responds only to growling noises, and Toastie (2004),
a toaster that operates when hummed at. web.media.mit.edu/~monsterGermaine Koh, an internationally recognized artist from Vancouver,
presents a work from her Fair Weather Forces series (2008), in
which live tide and water-level data control a velvet rope barrier
in the gallery. www.germainekoh.comEyebeam alum JooYoun Paek shows new projects created from the
infrastructure of the city, including Not Bicycle Cover (2008), a
bicycle cover fashioned from inflated garbage bags, and Nothing In
It (2008), a handbag that sounds its contents when opened.
www.jooyounpaek.comSascha Pohflepp, a German artist and student in the Design
Interactions program at the Royal College of Art, London, presents,
for the first time in North America, the stylish Buttons (2006): a
lens-free camera that takes other people's pictures. www.pohflepp.comHans-Christoph Steiner, currently a resident artist at Eyebeam,
presents Reware (2008), hacked electronic devices for visitors to
play with, including a Linux- and PureData (PD)-programmed PDA
turned three-string guitar. www.at.or.at/hansThomson & Craighead, a UK team who has been making art from the
Internet for more than 15 years, display Unprepared Piano (2003), a
Yamaha Disklavier that plays MIDI files collected from the web, at
random. www.thomson-craighead.netAddie Wagenknecht, a fellow in Eyebeam's Production Lab, has
collaborated with Stefan Hechenberger under the name Nor_/d, on
Shadow Project (2008), a responsive architectural environment of
motor-controlled wires and fabric. www.nortd.comJoe Winter, an Eyebeam alum and a recent recipient of a MacDowell
Colony residency, presents his newly commissioned work, Xerox
Astronomy and the Nebulous Object-Image Archive (2008), a modernist
cubic structure in which a standard office copier is used as a
central light source for reading the surrounding cosmos.
www.severalprojects.comCurator
Sarah Cook is the 2008 inaugural curatorial fellow at Eyebeam. She
comes to Eyebeam from CRUMB (www.crumbweb.org), the UK-based online
resource for curators of new media art, at the University of
Sunderland, where she is a post-doctoral researcher. Sarah has been
curating exhibitions of new media art in North America and Europe
for the past 10 years, at venues including the Walker Art Center,
the National Gallery of Canada, BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art,
The Edith Russ Haus for Media Art, The Walter Phillips Gallery at
the Banff Centre, AV Festival and Cornerhouse, Manchester. Her
fellowship at Eyebeam is supported, in part, by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council, UK.Related events
Untethered's public programming takes its cue from Eyebeam's
ongoing research into open source software and hardware. Events
celebrating hacking and discussions of the issues surrounding
patents and copyrights, art and designed obsolescence, will take
place over the course of the exhibition.Thursday, September 25, 6PM: The Untethered opening reception,
featuring artist talks with Germaine Koh, Michel de Broin, Kelly
Dobson and Sascha Pohflepp, as well as an introduction by the
exhibition's curator, Sarah Cook.Tuesday, October 14, 7PM: Workshop: Open source your mobile devices! Eyebeam resident Hans-Christoph Steiner hosts a workshop on hacking
devices such as iPods, wifi routers and PDAs.Tuesday, October 21, 7PM: Presentation: Performing Machines:
Untethered artists present their instrumental hacks. With JooYoun
Paek and others.Saturday, October 25, 5PM: Panel discussion: Untethered curator
Sarah Cook leads a discussion on art, design and obsolescence. The
panel features Jessica Banks, Ayah Bdeir and lawyer Elizabeth
Stark, founder of Harvard's Free Culture group and researcher for
Jonathan Zittrain's book The Future of The Internet. The talk will
be followed by the exhibition's closing reception.For further information and details about these events please
visit: www.eyebeam.orgImages Images for publication are available upon request and online at:
www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/sets/72157607128132407/ A pdf of the press release is available online at: http:// www.eyebeam.org/about/about.php?page=releaseCredits Thanks to: The British Council, for supporting Sascha Pohflepp's participation
in Untethered; Frank and Camille Sicari, for the loan of the piano; Solar One, for partnership on the waterfront location for the work
of Germaine Koh.### Founded in 1997, Eyebeam is an art and technology center that
provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital
experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and
thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with the
larger culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time.
Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the
next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its output
to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of
openness: open source, open content and open distribution.Eyebeam's current programs are made possible through the generous
support of The Annenberg Foundation, The Arts and Humanities
Research Council, UK, The Atlantic Foundation, The Pacific
Foundation, the Johnson Art and Education Foundation, the Jerome
Foundation, Deep Green Living, ConEdison, Datagram, Electric
Artists Inc.; public funds from New York City Council Speaker
Christine C. Quinn, the New York City Department of Cultural
Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York
State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and many generous
individuals. Sarah Cook's fellowship is supported by a partnership
with CRUMB at the University of Sunderland, UK. For a complete list
of Eyebeam supporters, please visit www.eyebeam.org.Location: 540 W. 21st Street between 10th & 11th Avenues Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 - 6:00pm Bookstore: Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 - 6:00pm Admission: All events are free to the public with a suggested
donation unless otherwise noted.
Using ReBirth is like trying to play an 808 with a long stick. - David Zicarelli
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