31 Oct 2013

Kunsthal Aarhus: Systemics #2: As we may think (or, the next world library)

Systemics #2: As we may think (or, the next world library)

Artists: Florian Hecker (DE/AT), Linda Hilfling (DK), Jakob Jakobsen (DK), Suzanne Treister (UK), Ubermorgen (CH/AT), YoHa (Graham Harwood, Matsuko Yokokoji) with Matthew Fuller (UK)

21 September - 31 December 2013

'Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.'
- Vannevar Bush, 'As We May Think' (1945)

Kunsthal Aarhus is proud to present As we may think (or, the next world library), the second exhibition in its Systemics Series (the artistic programme for 2013-2014).

The exhibition explores the relationship between thinking and making, and how this is transformed into knowing. It takes Vannevar Bush's seminal essay 'As We May Think' as a reference point to imagine alternative scenarios for organizing and accessing information – for constructing collective human knowledge rather than for destruction (and war). In a culture overloaded with information, the exhibition reflects on how art, technology and science might redefine possibilities beyond today's standardized forms of what and how knowledge is produced.

Artists in the exhibition explore the relations between networked information, artistic research and processes of self-organization: referring to machine intelligence (Florian Hecker, YoHa), intellectual property and self-publishing (Linda Hilfling, UBERMORGEN), histories of technology (Suzanne Treister), and alternative institutions of knowledge (Jakob Jakobsen). A new essay 'Entering the Flow' by Boris Groys accompanies the exhibition and can be found online at www.kunsthalaarhus.dk/research/.

For the exhibition, Kunsthal Aarhus has commissioned new works from the artists Florian Hecker, Linda Hilfling, Jakob Jakobsen, and UBERMORGEN.