Art in Technological Times. A major art exhibition and far-reaching digital technology initiative, 010101 charts new developments in contemporary art, architecture and design as they evolve in, and are influenced by, a world altered by the increasing presence of digital media and technology.
Art in Technological Times
A major art exhibition and far-reaching digital technology initiative, 010101 charts new
developments in contemporary art, architecture and design as they evolve in, and are
influenced by, a world altered by the increasing presence of digital media and technology.
Presented in the galleries and online, the exhibition features work (including many newly
commissioned pieces) in all media by some thirty-five artists and designers.
Gallery Presentation (opening March 3, 2001)
Technology is changing every aspect of our daily lives. The 010101 : Art in Technological Times
gallery exhibition shows how artists are responding to these gadgets and gizmos, screens and
scrims that now surround us. It also shows them crystallizing the larger forces, such as
globalization, the near pornography of available information and forms, and the increased fluidity of
our identities, these bits and bytes imply.
In the 010101 SFMOMA galleries, visitors will find a range of such video works, sculptures, design
projects, computer-driven installations, traditional drawings and paintings, and new art works
commissioned for the gallery. There is a an intense sense of experimentation with new forms and
formats technology makes possible. This is true both for the methods of making art (like digital
design) and viewing it (like the Internet). Other artists have chosen to reflect on technology by
mining what are still the considerable expressive powers of traditional media. What makes this art
worth looking at is its ability to help us see forces that often seem too large and abstract for us to
hold onto. Artists, in other words, are adopting technology in the studio, deploying it in the gallery,
inhabiting it on the Internet, and making work that reflects its presence in society in a stunning
range of ways.
The artists exhibiting their work in these galleries do not all think of themselves as being "high-tech,"
but they do take advantage of what technology can do for them. Their work is driven less by the
devotion to a distinct medium or style than by the will to articulate certain ideas and situations in
visible, tangible form.
Image:
Tatsuo Miyajima,
Floating Time,
2000 ,
Computer-generated projection ,
Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine,
New York
SFMoMA, 151 Third Street, San Francisco