Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018
Sept 28, 2018–Apr 14, 2019
Signal, Sequence, Resolution:
Liberating the Signal
5
The artists in this grouping use electronic or digital signals as their material but subvert the signals’ intended function, thereby “liberating” them from their original purpose. In doing so, they draw attention to the potential for signals to be carriers of instructions and visual information. Nam June Paik’s Magnet TV creates visual effects by distorting a television’s electronic signal, while digitally manipulated signals are an element of Cory Arcangel’s Super Mario Clouds for which the artist reprogrammed a Nintendo cartridge to erase the sound and all visual elements except for the clouds from the iconic video game. Signal and image resolution are explored by Jim Campbell, who programs LEDs to create cinematic and spatial images in both a room-sized installation and screen-based works.
Jim Campbell, Reconstruction 7, 2006
Jim Campbell (b. 1956), Reconstruction 7, 2006. LED lights and cast-resin screen, 14 3/8 × 21 5/8 × 3 1/2 in. (36.5 × 54.9 × 8.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Robert D. Bielecki 2017.238. © Jim Campbell
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.
Artists
- Josef Albers
- Cory Arcangel
- Tauba Auerbach
- Jonah Brucker-Cohen
- Jim Campbell
- Ian Cheng
- Lucinda Childs
- Charles Csuri
- Agnes Denes
- Alex Dodge
- Charles Gaines
- Philip Glass
- Frederick Hammersley
- Channa Horwitz
- Donald Judd
- Joseph Kosuth
- Shigeko Kubota
- Marc Lafia
- Barbara Lattanzi
- Lynn Hershman Leeson
- Sol LeWitt
- Fang-yu Lin
- Manfred Mohr
- Katherine Moriwaki
- Mendi + Keith Obadike
- Nam June Paik
- William Bradford Paley
- Paul Pfeiffer
- Casey Reas
- Earl Reiback
- Rafaël Rozendaal
- Lillian Schwartz
- James L. Seawright
- John F. Simon Jr.
- Steina
- Mika Tajima
- Tamiko Thiel
- Cheyney Thompson
- Joan Truckenbrod
- Siebren Versteeg
- Lawrence Weiner