Tag Archives: technology

Antal Lakner’s Passive Working Devices at the Ludwig Museum

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Antal Lakner’s retrospective exhibition Workstation at the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, covers the artist’s oeuvre of engaging, design-oriented conceptual artworks that challenge the passivity of the museum environment and the individual’s response to contemporary life. My favorite works, which are representative of many of Lakner’s concerns, are the INERS Passive Working Devices. It is a scientific-sounding name for these cleanly designed  machines that look as if they belong in a gym or an office–in fact, exactly the haunts of our post-industrial society of office workers who must pursue physical activity as exercise, a leisure activity, rather than as a necessary part of everyday life. Absurdly, these machines mimic the actions of formerly common labor, such as sawing, walking with a wheelbarrow, and house painting, transforming them into exercises that produce no result.

A demonstration of the Passive Working Devices in action:

Forest Master in action.

Home Transporter (1999) in action.

Wall Master (1998) in action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These devices highlight Lakner’s interest in the individual’s role in society, here in relation to physical labor. The obviously playful, interactive aspect of these devices belies their critical nature. There is a tension in the absurdity of the work which mimics usefulness but serves no purpose, between the carefully manufactured aesthetic that is in fact hand-made, and in the interactivity of machines which call for action while questioning agency. All these tensions suggest that modern life might turn us into automatons if we do not remain aware of the issues that the INERS Passive Working Devices bring up.

Zoom Glove

Lakner’s newer work, First Life Tools, is based on web communication devices and here the critique of modern life breaks down a bit. The tools allow you to practice zooming, work out your scrolling fingers on a little track wheel, or drag a heavy, magnetized mouse that strengthens your hand and arm. After a day of Photoshop, these devices might seem incredibly relevant in a non-ironic sense. Certainly the technology the devices train you for is contemporary, but I think the anxiety over technology in contemporary life (think Marshall McLuhan) that the First Life Tools suggest feels dated. More than that, I can’t help thinking that the focus on the physical isn’t nearly as relevant to web communication as, for example, dealing with the mental schizophrenia of trying to keep up with many streams of online information on multiple wired devices would be.

Scroll Master

 

SMartCamp: Social Media Art Camp

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I’m on a break from SMartCAMP, and wow! is it fabulous to hear some of the speakers so far. The opening presentation by Marc Schiller, of Wooster Collective, reminds me of why I love blogging.

Schiller stumbled into blogging because he was looking for a way to host photographs he had taken of street art in his neighborhood, the West Village, while walking his dog. Since then, the blog he has created with his wife Sara has become an authority on street art that mainstream media turns to for content. Schiller still runs the project as a passion rather than a job, and it’s well-worth checking out if you aren’t familiar with the site.

Favorite Quote: “It’s okay to be a bit crap, as long as you are sincere and honest.”
http://www.woostercollective.com/Picture-190.jpg

If you want in on the action, check out the live stream on the website or the conversation on twitter by searching #smartcamp. I’m @linnea_west. This afternoon is focused on video and putting them online–perfect timing for my video of Scope and hopefully Pulse. The art fairs have been amazing so far, even more so to me after being on the island for 3 months.

However, it’s not for long. I just booked my ticket for Mexico, and I leave this Tuesday morning. I’ll probably be there a couple months–which just might be enough time to catch you up on all the art I’ve seen! Quick judgments: Whitney Biennial can be skipped, William Kentridge at MoMA cannot, Independent is interesting if chaotic, Scope better than Verge, and hopefully I’ll be able to say something about Pulse, Armory, and Volta soon!

Sam Leith defend books, I applaud

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An uplifting and moral article by Sam Leith, the Literary Editor of The Daily Telegraph, a UK newspaper. In “Grand Theft Auto, Twitter and Beowulf all demonstrate that stories will never die,” he defends the strength of the narrative in human culture to the delight of all writers and readers, with emphasis on the unfair attack on books by proponents of modern technology who feel books are antiquary repositories of knowledge.

Knowledge and stories come in many shapes and forms. My personal favorite form is a book, and not at all because I’m trying to write one. In anything, I’d say the book form and I have developed a healthy antagonism for just that reason. But the power of the narrative in its classic form is something I consider obvious.
I blog, but I by no means use this platform as write a long story. I use it to connect to other short pieces and to combine word with images and videos. It communicates in a different way by its medium, which is the point, I fancy, of Leith’s piece, which I encourage all with old-fashioned bookish tastes to read.
In a twist on this, check out Pepys’ Diary in online blog format, where each entry in the diary of Samual Pepys from the 1600s is posted daily, so you can follow his story in much the fashion it was written.