The online exhibition of Art & Code 8 is now live, designed by Art & Code member Yehwan Song.
Opening today, September 30th at 6 pm, Rhizome and NEW INC present Art & Code 8, an exhibition featuring works by Carrie Sijia Wang, Cassie Tarakajian, Lai Yi Ohlsen, Roopa Vasudevan, Rosalie Yu, Stephen  Kwok, Woody Sullender, and Yehwan Song. The artists have been practicing together, in community, over the past year as a part of Rhizome and NEW INC’s partnership residency track, Art & Code. The cohort has culminated their term with this exhibition at Public Works Administration organized by Rhizome Curator, Celine Wong Katzman who served as the track’s mentor this past year.
Learn more about the 2021-22 Art & Code cohort below and view their work at the online exhibition:
Carrie Sijia Wang conducted a series of Zoom experiments with friends, acquaintances, and strangers using an AI-driven speech coaching tool and live language translation program to observe the effects of feedback and computer interpretation on human connection.
Carrie Sijia Wang, “Report why we keep talking.”, 2022. Two channel video installation, 23 min.; 32 sec.; 22 min., 20 sec. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Cassie Tarakajian’s Furby has been reprogrammed to cycle through all of its pre-programmed actions in numerical order regardless of its “personality” or viewer behavior. It will perform in perpetuity until the interconnected electronics break down.
Cassie Tarakajian, The Singularity Is Not Here, 2022. Furby, acrylic, website. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Cassie Tarakajian, The Singularity Is Not Here, 2022 (detail). Furby, acrylic, website. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Taking inspiration from the narrative diagrams of neo-conceptual artist Mark Lombardi, Lai Yi Ohlsen connects various actors, concepts, and institutions who are all known to have an influence over the Internet. She places them on the same plane to consider: How does power flow between these nodes and who do we need to involve if we want to reimagine its shape?
Lai Yi Ohlsen, The Internet & Its Influences, 2022. Pen on paper, Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Roopa Vasudevan’s Slow Response II (Motion) is a triptych of lenticular prints that animate into scannable codes—but only when viewed from very specific angles. When scanned, the codes lead to websites containing poetic reflections on the finicky nature of the renderings, and the annoyances we feel with them as a result.
Roopa Vasudevan, Triptych: Slow Response II (Motion), 2022. Lenticular prints, mobile websites. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Rosalie Yu’s grandfather picked up the intensely laborious work of repairing, painting, repainting, and transporting kiddie ride machines, and collecting the coins for a living. The machines he kept alive also outlived him. Candy-Glazed Eyes of Haunted Machines is a study in family history, class, and the postcolonial artifact in Taiwan.
Rosalie Yu, Candy-Glazed Eyes of Haunted Machines, 2022. Interactive video installation, reciprocating motor, aluminum tube, coin acceptor, microcontroller, silicone rubber, fishnet. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Rosalie Yu, Candy-Glazed Eyes of Haunted Machines, 2022 (detail). Interactive video installation, reciprocating motor, aluminum tube, coin acceptor, microcontroller, silicone rubber, fishnet. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Held on Zoom across continents and time zones, Stephen Kwok’s Recreational Meetings invite participants to use their mobile devices to simultaneously capture their surroundings in response to a series of creative prompts. The resulting recording is cut by Zoom in response to the environmental noise of the participants, revealing poetics embedded within emergent yet banal communication platforms.
Stephen Kwok, Recreational Meetings: Moving Image 20210226, 2022. Single-channel video, 24 min. 27 sec. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Play with me is an application featuring an avatar of Woody Sullender, formerly a noted banjoist and recording artist. Using a midi keyboard, visitors can control the artist’s avatar. This functions as an irreverent inversion of the power dynamics in passive listening.
Woody Sullender, Play with me, 2022. Website, midi keyboard. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Yehwan Song’s Fountain is made using a web-based sculpting tool that records input errors that appear when water falls onto a touchscreen. Each touch is transmitted into a virtual droplet on the website and 3D printed droplet sculpture.
Yehwan Song, Fountain, 2022. Single-channel video, 15 sec, resin sculpture. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Yehwan Song, Fountain, 2022 (detail). Single-channel video, 15 sec, resin sculpture. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Installation view, “Art & Code 8” at Public Works Administration, New York, 2022. Courtesy of Rhizome. Photo: Hai Zhang.
Special thank you to Sam Black for exhibition production, and Dragan Espenschied for open source exhibition support for software-based artworks.
Rhizome champions born-digital art and culture through commissions, exhibitions, scholarship, and digital preservation. Since 2003, Rhizome has been an affiliate in residence at the New Museum in New York City.
NEW INC is the first museum-led cultural incubator, which supports a diverse range of creative practitioners with a values-driven program and safe space for gathering and developing creative projects and businesses.
PUBLIC WORKS ADMINISTRATION (PWA) is a digital art gallery in the 50th Street subway in Times Square. PWA spotlights underground artists who use digital tools to drive culture forward.