Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018

Magnet TV is an early example of Nam June Paik’s “prepared televisions,” works in which he altered the television’s image or its physical casing. This work consists of a seventeen-inch, black-and-white set with an industrial-size magnet resting on top of it. The magnetic field interferes with the television’s reception of electronic signals, distorting the picture into an abstract form that changes when the magnet is moved. Paik’s radical action undermines the seemingly inviolable power of broadcast television by transforming the TV set into a sculpture, one whose moving image is created by chance and can be manipulated at will. Through his alteration of the television image, Paik challenged the notion of the art object as a self-contained entity and established a process of instant feedback, whereby the viewer’s actions have a direct effect on the form and meaning of the work.

To make the works in his series of modified televisions, Earl Reiback detached and emptied the cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor of a TV, scraped the light-emitting phosphorus from the inside of the screen, then inserted sculptural elements and added back the phosphorescent paint. The altered televisions become sculptural forms, drawing attention to the space of the monitor and the creation of images through electronic signals, and also playing with our perception of how images are projected.

*Installed as part of an earlier version of the exhibition.

For this work, Cory Arcangel “hacked” a cartridge of Super Mario Brothers, the original version of the blockbuster Nintendo video game released in the United States in 1985. By altering the game’s code, the artist erased the sound and all of the visual elements except the iconic scrolling clouds. On a formal level, the project recalls paintings that push representation toward abstraction: how many elements can be removed before the ability to discern the source is lost? Arcangel, who was trained in classical music, considers computers and video-game consoles his instruments, and he insists on mastering them prior to creative exploration; he will often learn a new programming language in order to develop a work. What might be viewed as nostalgia for the popular entertainments of an earlier era depends, in fact, on a rigorous conceptual approach to computer hard- and software.

Tilted Plane, part of Jim Campbell’s Exploded View series, expands a two-dimensional moving image into three-dimensional space. Campbell handcrafted hundreds of hanging LEDs from standard 100-watt light bulbs by removing the glass filament from each and replacing it with a custom-made LED stem designed to perfectly fit the bulb envelope. Connected to a circuit board with custom electronics, the light bulbs function as an array of pixels and a tilted, low-resolution video display. When viewed from the front of the installation, the flickering LEDs register as birds taking off and landing. As one moves closer or off-axis, the flickering becomes abstract and seemingly random. With Tilted Plane Campbell takes his earlier experiments with resolution from the screen into a room.

Jim Campbell’s series of “low-resolution” works explores the construction of the electronic and digital image by breaking it down into units of light. In Reconstruction 7, a resin diffusion screen is mounted in front of an array of LED pixels showing a traffic scene. The resin block softens the highly pixelated depiction produced by the LEDs, creating a decipherable image. Through the programming of custom electronics, Campbell draws attention to the thresholds of legibility for images made and viewed through a matrix of signals.

In Ambiguous Icon #5 (Running, Falling), a matrix of pixels made of red LEDs (light-emitting diodes) with hundreds of possible light values shows a figure running and falling in a loop.

*Installed as part of an earlier version of the exhibition.