Technophilia

TECHNOPHILIA 10.23.15 - 12.5.15

Cover image: Songlines, 2015. Christopher Nickel. Archival pigment prints.

TECHNOPHILIA

EMBARK GALLERY OCTOBER 23 - DECEMBER 5, 2015 Paulina Berczynski - CCA Irene Chou - CCA Cy Keener - STANFORD J Kung Dreyfus - CCA Heather Murphy - CCA

Christopher Nickel - STANFORD Sarafan SFSU TaniaRandy Houtzager EXECUTIVE- DIRECTOR Angelica Jardini CURATORIAL DIRECTOR

Embark Gallery.com

An obsession with innovation pervades our contemporary environment.

Is this reverence towards progress positive, or are there malignant implications? Technophilia explores how rapid technological advancements affect not only art practices, but also our relationships and environment.

The technological shift in culture, so prevalent especially in the Bay Area, has rerouted ways in which we engage, swiftly demolishing what we thought was certain and generating new possibilities never before thought possible. The enormous scope of these changes could not be captured in one exhibition, one statement, or one artwork. However, our jurors selected artworks that respond to various aspects of these recent realities, creating a show that successfully encapsulates our technological horizon. What these chosen artists share is a desire to connect the past to the present, and a certain skepticism of the future.

Christopher Nickel’s photographs invite us to consider the physical infrastructure of the digital world, reminding us that both the triumphs and consequences of progress have tangible form. Cy Keener uses technology in an attempt to expose its limitations, while simultaneously showcasing its potential by using it to make the invisible visible. Randy Sarafan’s sculptures question ethics in the tech world with a lighthearted approach, perfectly capturing the blasé attitude and sense of humor that define the attitude of the internet generation.

Heather Murphy’s work Searching considers the peculiar dichotomy of the concurrent distance and intimacy of online interactions. She highlights the isolation of browsing by forcing viewers to access the work on their own smart device in the gallery. Contrastingly, Irene Chou forces a physical connection in Static Bodies; two participants must touch in order to complete the circuit and hear the personal accounts of friendship that emanate from the headphones. Meanwhile, The interplay of the artist’s hand and digital technology is considered in both the paintings of J Kung Dreyfus and textiles by Paulina Berczynski. The woven text, “Consider the difference between a machine and a human being” acts as a thematic emblem for the entire show.

“Philia” derives from Greek, and refers to a friendly love, or connection. But in its origins, the term is meant to describe human relationships. These artists use technology comfortably, even affectionately, yet it is by challenging our affinity towards the technological that they give us the space to muse on what is lost when we bond so thoroughly to that which cannot reciprocate.

Angelica Jardini | CURATORIAL DIRECTOR

PAULINA BERCZYNSKI CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, 2016 “I am deeply invested in the traditions of public art and social practice, but have recently been pushing these fields into the social-virtual context. Last year I focused heavily on the digital in textile practice, weaving on the TC1 digital jacquard loom. My current research in centered on virtual space, the radical domestic, and the overlaps between technology and feminism.�

Consider the Difference, 2015. Hand-woven digital Jacquard cloth.

Glitch Landscape 2, 2015. Hand-woven digital Jacquard cloth.

IRENE CHOU CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, 2015 “As far back as my memory goes, sound is a phenomenon to which I have been deeply drawn. So when confronted with the question of how to create meaningful human experiences through technology, I looked to sound for inspiration.

Can sound inform how we build experiences? What possibilities emerge when we broaden the utility of sound in design beyond simply as means of notifying or distracting?

Static Bodies (2015) is two pairs of headphones tethered to one another through an audio splitter with custom circuitry. The system is designed so that the two listeners must be physically touching in order for sound to come through. My intention is to provide an alternative perspective on what it means to be connected in the digital age.�

Static Bodies, 2015. Interactive sculpture and audio recording.

CY KEENER STANFORD 2016 “I use technology to explore the limits of human perception and measurement of the natural world. We are embedded in a cultural moment of big data and satellite voyeurism. It is too easy and comforting to overestimate the reach of the known. What does a gust of wind look like? What is the path a raindrop takes in the last second before it reaches the ground? I employ electronic and digital tools within my art practice to record the vast complexity of our surroundings. My materials are the sun, wind and rain, but also sensors, microprocessors and mechanical constructions. The resulting sculptural objects and field explorations bring me closer to understanding each event, as well as the humble limits of our ability to track, record and know. I am interested in a science of the particular: using technological tools to dwell in all that can be known and all that remains unknown in a single moment.�

Rain Records Triptych, 2015. Water sensitive paper, aluminum, rainfall. $1800

Weather Vane 1.2, 2015. Sand cast aluminum, aluminum tube, polycarbonate, fasteners, sensors and electronics.

Rain Recorder 2.3, 2015. Aluminum, acrylic, cloth tape and video cameras.

J KUNG DREYFUS CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, 2015 “My primary interest is the relationship between language, technology, and the human body. The investigation begins on Google Slides. I invert the normative role of the software as a presentation tool and use it instead as a generative tool. Google Slides is thus the starting point rather than the ending point. I use the shape tool, text tool, and other geometries to construct visual poems. After making the slides, I export them as vector files and give them a dimensionality and scale. I bring them into the “real world” by laser cutting pieces of the compositions and hand-tracing the components onto canvas. In the final painting or sculpture, the trace of the technological element has been reinvented through transformative phases and multiple iterations.”

Tombent, 2015. Oil on canvas.

The Hashtag Plot, 2015. Oil on canvas.

T squared, 2015. Oil on canvas.

Quoted Passage, 2015. Oil on canvas.

HEATHER MURPHY CALIFORNIA COLLEGE OF THE ARTS, 2015 New media artist Heather Murphy’s most recent project, Searching... relates to our never-ending online search for love, jobs, and housing.

Searching..., 2015. Heather Murphy. Routers, usb stick, files.

CHRISTOPHER NICKEL STANFORD, 2015 “Virtual technologies are increasingly becoming essential to nearly every aspect of our lives. As our reliance upon these technologies expands, however, there is a reciprocal—yet often unseen—expansion of the physical infrastructures through which they act. These massive data centers, cell towers and webs of fiber-optic cable do not just support our information and communications technologies; they are the very substance of these networks themselves.

Songlines is a series of photographs depicting lengths of fiber-optic cable—a tiny portion of the rarely glimpsed corpus of the Internet. Arranged in a horizontal line, the nearly abstract compositions illustrate the idea of communication and transmission while simultaneously taking on the appearance of ruled paper or musical scores— earlier forms of communication that have now been made all but obsolete by contemporary communication technologies.”

Songlines, 2015. Christopher Nickel. Archival pigment prints.

RANDY SARAFAN SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY, 2015 “The works showcased here are reflective of the previous ten years that I have spent fully immersed in San Francisco’s tech startup culture. The Unicorn Emoji Rainbow Lamp takes over-bearing animated GIF aesthetics and translates it into the physical world. Thus, it forces a participant to reconcile the tangible world with the frivolous virtual one they (presumably) have been complicit in shaping.

Following along a similar trajectory, Shrug takes a disposable statement of online apathy and immortalizes it in solid metal. It is meant to stand as a mission statement for the tech industry’s general attitude towards their impact on actual communities.”

Shrug, 2015. Polished aluminum.

Rainbow Unicorn Emoji, 2015. Vinyl Sticker, Aluminum, and color-changing LED strip.

Acknowledgements Sartle.com Fort Mason Center Amy Cancelmo - Root Division Kerri Hurtado - Artsource Consulting Megan McConnell - Anthony Meier Fine Arts Lauren Dare Xiao Wang Christopher Squier

Designed by Carolyn Nickell

2 Marina Blvd. Bldg. B Ste. 330, San Francisco CA 94123

Cover image: Songlines, 2015. Christopher Nickel. Archival pigment prints.

Tania Houtzager EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Angelica Jardini CURATORIAL DIRECTOR

Embark Gallery.com