For Art in America, Walker Downey describes recent trends in sound art that “suggest a revision of its parameters.” Drawing on works by multidisciplinary artists Kevin Beasley (image: A Cotton Gin Motor, 2012-18) Christine Sun Kim, and Nikita Gale, Downey forges connections between 1980s and early 2000s sound practice, and uses his case studies to discuss the emergence of “sound sculptures,” and multimodal deployments of sound that challenge ”logics of power and prejudice.”
Casey Reas is an American software artist and educator based in Los Angeles. His works have been shown at museums and galleries around the world and are part of private and public collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and SFMOMA. Reas is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2001, together with Ben Fry, Reas initiated Processing, a widely popular open-source programming language and environment for the visual arts.
Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist for the 15th anniversary of the Julia Stoschek Collection, “WORLDBUILDING: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age” opens at Stoschek’s Düsseldorf location. Obrist assembles over 30 works from true pioneers of interactive and time-based media art including Cory Arcangel, JODI, LaTurbo Avedon, and Ian Cheng (image: BOB (Bag of Beliefs), 2018-19) to explore digital aesthetics and alternate realities, be it in single channel video or immersive installations.
“Indivisible,” a show presenting installation, film, and software from Ralf Baecker, Yunchul Kim, Semiconductor, and Richard Vijgen, opens at New Media Gallery, in New Westminster, British Columbia. The focus on “prosthetics and strategies that help us reach beyond human perception” is exemplified by the inclusion of Kim’s ARGOS (2018, image), a bundle of electron sensing Geiger–Müller tubes encased in a glass and aluminum exoskeleton—fusing scientific instrument with sculptural form.
Bringing together 19 artworks, “Earthbound—In Dialogue with Nature,” opens at Luxembourg’s Möllerei learning centre. Part of the 2022 European Capital of Culture, artists including Refik Anadol, Tega Brain, and Mary Maggic help viewers “become aware of otherwise invisible ecological processes.” Sabrina Ratté’s Floralia I – IV (image, 2021) depicts a virtual archive of extinct plants that glitches “under the effect of interference” by the genetic memory of its stored species.
The 2nd Biennale Warszawa opens, themed “Seeing Stones and Spaces Beyond the Valley,” to examine the relation of technology, power, and capital. On view are 25 works by, among others, Paolo Cirio, Kyriaki Goni, Metahaven, Laura Poitras, Jenna Sutela, and Julian Oliver that dig deep into reactionary politics and Silicon Valley ideologies. Luis August Krawen’s The Shire II, (2022, image), for example, connects Tolkien’s fantasy to tech start-ups idealising both progress and conservatism.
Rethinking Our Futures: Art and Collaboration, a follow-up publication documenting an eponymous 2021 symposium is published. Organized by Molior, the initiative brought curators including Natacha Clitandre, Dominique Fontaine, and Mikhel Proulx to Montreal to discuss challenges facing digital art. Now, those conversations are echoed by a rich collection of short essays on “internet-specific” exhibitions, alt-infrastructure, and intercultural exchange.
Bloomberg’s Allyson Versprille and Bill Allison report that US political donations from the crypto sector surged to more than $26 million during 2021 and early 2022—a rise of 5,200%. Faced with increased scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators, the digital-asset industry outspent internet giants ($20M), drug makers ($7M), and the defense industry ($18.6M). “It has come out of nowhere to spend a significant amount of money on politics,” said OpenSecrets senior researcher Dan Auble.
Three Doors—Forensic Architecture/Forensis, Initiative 19 opens at Frankfurter Kunstverein (FKV). Featuring London-based Forensic Architecture working with local partners, the show (re)presents evidence in three instances of racially motivated violence in Germany. Oury Jalloh’s Cell: Smoke Traces (2022, image), demonstrates the central architectural motif, by modelling the circumstances of an African asylum seeker’s burning death, while in police custody in 2005.
“The Octopus,” an exhibition of art made within a multi-year research-based educational program spearheaded by curator Başak Şenova, opens at Vienna’s Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab (AIL). For the show, Bengü Karaduman, Maarit Mustonen, Alina Rentsch (image: Figur(e)/ation, 2022) and 13 other artists share experimental works that draw on approaches including grassroots organizing, interdisciplinary collaboration, and seeking out alternative funding models.
