Dear Artists–I am posting this early call for an exhibition under development. If you have an questions please email Lucy Hunter. Best wishes, Marie Kazalia

Lucy Hunter
New York,
lrh2130@columbia.edu

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT—EXHIBITION YET UNTITLED

There is no adequate term in our lexicon to describe recent changes to what, traditionally, qualified “presence.” Being “somewhere” is no longer contingent on material existence in a specific place and time. Until recently, society was organized around physical structures and territories—now, architecture applies to a walled city as much as to the code that determines one’s whereabouts online. The 1970s mantra, “Be here now” is moot. But what are the ontological implications when site and temporality are collapsed, of being many-wheres at many-times?

Materiality, volume, space—the contention points surrounding contemporary notions of presence are inherent to artistic production. Discourse over the past century anticipates the conflicts relevant to the digital age; from concern with the antagonism between flatness and three-dimensionality, to rethinking exhibition spaces as an overdetermining site for work. Media advances, be it the Daguerrotype or the “social network,” provoke crises to authenticity, authorship, and reproduction. The principles of reception, too, are bound up in expectations of physical proximity between spectator and art: audiences “go” to galleries to interact with a “gathered” arrangement of works. I use quotes to show the failure of those terms to describe the display of art in online formats and the ease of accessing new media works in their original—but by no means irreplicable—form. Artists have confronted rapid change brought on by the Internet for years, change that bears repercussions on visual practice as much as social life at large. Artists have an advantage in current sociological dialogue, and my goal is to provide a forum that draws attention to their perspectives.

Exhibits in this series aim to expose the opportunities and limitations inherent to concurrent yet opposed modes of presence. Shows will be organized by topics that bring to light the contradictions and limitations between physical reality and the Internet. Venues are selected in response to that theme as well, to heighten/bring awareness to each discussion. The goal is not to delineate distinct boundaries between old versus new, this versus that, but rather to articulate the disintegration of tenets which, as recently as 20 years ago, were unambiguous. This exhibit aims to examine the paradoxes of location when boundaries between real-space and non-space have become fluid, and when individuals exist simultaneously in both.

EXHIBIT CALLS

TRACKING. A person’s location has less to do with physical signifiers than the streams of data by which existence is registered. Cell-phone GPS, credit card swipes, and IP addresses constitute an accurate record of a person’s daily life. This exhibit calls for work that explores the impact of such data on physical integrity, and the state of compromised privacy into which a contemporary citizen must enter. How can artistic practice subvert these apparently threatening information systems, or, in equal measure, capitalize on their possibilities? Looking for work in all media that demonstrates resistance or complicity with the overwhelming capabilities of information technology. Show to take place in April or May of 2012. Limited funds allotted for exhibition costs. Venue space TBA, in Manhattan/Brooklyn area.

TRESPASS. From basic identity theft to Wiki Leaks, violations of territory have less to do with a transgression of material boundaries than a breach of firewalls. Security no longer aims to prevent intruders “out there” from entering “in here;” rather, the threat is often unseen, if it exists in one place at all. Call for art that deals with trespass and private space, particularly the tension between divergent physical and Internet-based manifestations. Possible online-only exhibit; call primarily for digital media. Limited funds allotted for exhibition costs.