“KINETISMUS: 100 Years of Electricity in Art,” Kunsthalle Praha’s inaugural exhibition opens. A multi-generational affair, its scope spans Bauhaus to teamLab, bundling work as computer art, film, cybernetics, and kinetic art. Cleverly, 20th century pioneers like Vladimir Bonačić (image: Random 63, 1969), László Moholy-Nagy, and Lillian F. Schwartz are matched up with contemporaries including Refik Anadol, Shilpa Gupta, and Olafur Eliasson.
“Nature × Humanity,” a celebration of Oxman Architects’ biomorphic forms, opens at SFMOMA. Focused on the pressing question “what is the role of an architect in the age of climate change?,” Neri Oxman and collaborators present recent work exploring new materials and manufacturing techniques. Featured projects include a malformed chaise lounge and the Vespers masks (2018), through building- (image: Model for Gemini Cinema, 2021) and city-scale proposals.
“Oceanic Thinking,” featuring Monira Al Qadiri, Sancintya Mohini Simpson, SUPERFLEX (image: Dive-In, 2019), and others, opens at The University of Queensland Art Museum in Australia. The kickoff of the multi-year Blue Assembly project (which connects marine scientists and artists, as part of an UN initiative), the show invites viewers to “think together with these liquid, vast, biodiverse, and non-binary spaces to speculate our collective future.”
The world’s first NFT vending machine opens in New York’s Financial District. A PR stunt slash proof of concept, it sells QR codes denoting ownership of NFTs from the Neon marketplace. Purchases are made via credit or debit card, and two collections are available: Project Color and Party Pigeons. “[A vending machine] means we can engage the widest possible audience. NFT buying and selling doesn’t need to be a mystery,” says Neon’s Jordan Birnholtz.
“Formulations as Texture, Horizontal and Vertical Crossings,” a solo exhibition by Florian Hecker opens at Simian in Ørestad, Copenhagen. The show’s single spatial audio piece deploys two variants of Formulations (2015), an algorithmically-generated composition, into a new 3-channel version that capitalizes on distinctions between the two versions producing “a maze of different resolutions, gradations, scales, similarities, and differences.”
Libby Heaney’s Light Art Space (LAS) commission Ent- (2022) premieres at Schering Stiftung, Berlin, taking quantum computing as both medium and subject matter. Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s iconic triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (c.1490–1510), the British artist and physicist used quantum code to manipulate and animate her own paintings, creating “hybrid organisms, breathing landscapes, and exploding structures” inside the metaphorical black box of a 360° immersive installation.
Berlin-based artists Kat Austen and Fara Peluso are announced winners of a six-month residency at the S+T+ARTS Center Upper Austria to work on “Circular Records”—a low-carbon alternative to vinyl. “We will develop a record production process that uses sustainable biomaterials,” says Austen. The goal is to create a high-fidelity reproduction of This Land is Not Mine, Austen’s 2020 experimental music album that explores futures after fossil fuel.
After its 2020 premiere at K21 in Düsseldorf, Hito Steyerl’s retrospective “I Will Survive” opens at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The show offers an expansive overview of the German artist and filmmaker’s oeuvre, from the early documentary works to the more recent CGI video installations (image: Social Sim, 2020). “Her work has always had a clairvoyant and penetrating understanding of society,” curator Karen Archey writes about Steyerl’s importance. “She disrupts the status quo as the bedrock of her practice.”
“EMPATHIE,” an exhibition of Scenocosme’s interactive works from the last decade, opens at Musée de Vence in France. Whimsical interfaces by the artist duo on display include musical plants, resonant stones, wood veneer instruments, and other experiments in haptics, materials, and audiovisual abstraction. Also featured is Metamorphy (2013, image), where viewers manipulate a veil-like surface, shaping the flow of organic and liquid forms.
“Kazuo Umezz the Great Art Exhibition,” opens at Tokyo City View. For his career celebration, the manga legend has painted a sequel to his classic Watashi wa Shingo (1982-6) and artist duo exonemo pay tribute; their array of 12 screens mimic the form of panels, displaying infinite randomized scenes “that Shingo would have seen in the comic.” Fittingly, the installation sits in front of a view of the Tokyo Tower, an important site in the comic’s narrative.
