Surface
Essay for Surface exhibition at Mana Contemporary (2017)
The history of art has long been propelled by disruptions of technology that have informed new aesthetics. From the first photograph taken in 1826 to the first motion-picture film in 1878, it took many iterations, and even generations of innovation and inquiry, for objects of technology to become studied and deliberate until codified as works of art.
In 1987, the world met the GIF. The acronym stands for Graphics Interchange Format. Commonly used to describe low-resolution, looping digital animations, the bitmap file format actually predates the web, turning 30 this year. In 1995 when Netscape Navigator 2.0 began supporting animated GIFs, the file extension quickly became synonymous with web design of the late 1990s, bouncy animals and all. The GIF was in many ways a precursor to online video, as the first of its kind to represent motion and narrative, years before YouTube, Netflix, and the like.
Decades later, the GIF survives and thrives — giving birth to an entirely new internet visual language, as seen on websites and online communities such as Tumblr and Giphy that have formed around its viral popularity. Contemporary artists too have embraced the medium, while remaining conscious of its native use for personal computing: the GIF only exists in its relationship between people, their devices, and the web.
The works in this exhibition, although all by GIF artists, overturn the relationship between user and screen, creating site-specific experiences predicated on human interaction. Until now, all work produced by these artists have been created for and seen on screens. Through live performance, activations on social media, interactive games, and installations, Surface disrupts the one-sided delivery of the GIF, creating a multiplicity of experiences when translated into physical space.
But what transforms an object of technology into a work of art? Like photography, video, and the formats that have preceded it, the GIF and its physical translations in this exhibition simply function as a continued framework for questioning some of the deepest concerns of humanity today. The work of Sam Cannon personifies the conspicuous consumption of women’s bodies — resurfacing the problem of the gaze into the age of Instagram — complicated even further when participation activates destruction. Matthias Brown, an animator, examines the mechanics behind the creative process through live painting with a nod to rotoscoping techniques developed more than a century ago. Julian Glander’s interactive game questions if emotion can be programmed: now that we are at the cusp of machine learning, who will be the one to survive — man or emoji? Thoka Maer ventures into 3D abstraction with animations and projections created as sculptural signifiers of the unknown. Hayden Zezula has constructed an immersive space that represents a digital infinity: its shifting animations are a surreal dance of light and space.
In our increasingly virtual reality where technology and identity is performed as a simulation of lived experience, Surface is an invitation for you to perform technology.
New York, January 2017
Originally published at manacontemporary.com.
