Algorithmic Unconscious - Group Exhibition - Devotion Gallery

  • Type: event
  • Location: Devotion Gallery, 54 Maujer Street, Williamsburg Brooklyn, New York, 11206, US
  • Starts: Nov 4 2011 at 6:30PM
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Opening: Friday, November 4th, 2011 6:30-11:30pm. On view thru November 28th, 2011.





Algorithmic Unconscious



Curated by Phillip Stearns



Digital is anti-noise. In the shift from analog, physical, or
chemical forms of art making—where physical agents operate on physical
material—to digital, the noise of the medium is minimized (controlled)
as a default of the technological substrate.


Algorithmic Unconscious highlights machine/human collaborations where
the primary material in the works exhibited is the inherent noise of
electronic systems. By emphasizing random fluctuations, the artists
explore the potential for electronic technologies to misinterpret and
re-imagine the signals they are processing in order to complete the
work. The featured artists work within and parallel to the Glitch Art
movement, recognizing that algorithms for processing signals function as
key materials of digital art. By feeding these algorithms
"unconventional data" or by putting them through unconventional
routines, noise is reintroduced as a signature of the machine.


Jeff Donaldson’s work takes analog VHS tapes and Flash video compression
and twists them into a system where the product is an "interpretation"
of noise that mirrors the phenomenon responsible for the noise of our
visual sense organs being perceived as visions in dreams. Dan Temkin
puts Photoshop’s dithering algorithm into a situation where it is forced
to get creative with incompatible color palettes in the production of
large scale, low-resolution images. Arcangel Constantini re-wires the
electronics of an Atari 2600 game console from the 70s so that the
internal memory is expressed in a fragmented machine style
stream-of-consciousness: a frenetically changing barrage of fragmented
geometries and saturated colors. The images of Phillip Stearns’s DCP
Series explore a machine dream-state induced by rewiring the brains of
digital cameras. The analog plotter drawings of Jeff Snyder utilize
technologies from which contemporary digital art practices originated:
analog computing, providing an elegant counter point to the digital
works in the show.


The algorithmic unconscious itself may not yet be something that we can
clearly define or identify, however, we may be able to view the works in
this exhibition and identify between them a revised metaphor for
ourselves and our relationship to our technology.


Schedule of Events


Opening: November 4th, 6:30p reception / 9:30p concert


Exhibiting Artists:
Jeff Snyder, Daniel Temkin, Phillip Stearns, Jeff Donaldson, Arcangel Constantini


Performance Lineup:
Richard Garet, Kamran Sadeghi, Phillip Stearns


Closing: November 18th, 8:30p - 11:30p


Performance Lineup:
Phil White, Dandelion Fiction, TwistyCat, Phillip Stearns