In contrast to the numerous art and technology exhibitions which took place between 19661972, and which focused on the aesthetic applications of technological apparatus, software was predicated on theyidea of software as a metaphor for art. The exhibition was also avantgarde and a pioneer for something very common today. Jack burnhams systems aesthetics was one of the first, fully developed, critical theories of postformalist artistic practice. The origin of this piece dates to the groundbreaking exhibition software. Its new meaning for art, the watershed exhibitionthe only. In 1970, artist and writer jack burnham curated the exhibition software information technology. He began his career as an artist in 1955 and until 1965 he like hans haacke, his friend and collaborator made kinetic sculptures and light based. He is one of the main forces behind the emergence of systems art in the 1960s. He was one of the main forces behind the emergence of systems art in the 1960s. Varied problems beset opening of jewish museums software. The artist offered attendees the ability to experiment with two instruments produced by the minnesota mining and manufacturing company 3m. Jack burnham was an inaugural fellow at the mit center for advanced visual studies cavs from 19681970. In 1970, burnham organized software at the jewish museum in new york. Its new meaning for art at the jewish museum in new.
Photograph of jack burnham exhibition curator reproduced in software. Notes on jack burnham s concepts of a software exhibition, by robert mallory in leonardo, volume 3, number 2 1970, pages 189190. Mar 5, 2012 seek, 1970 by nicholas negroponte with the architecture machine group, m. This piece consisted of a plexiglass encased, computercontrolled environment full of small blocks and inhabited by gerbils, who continuously changed the position of the. Burnham curated the groundbreaking 1970 exhibition software information technology. Its new meaning for art was an exhibition curated by artist and critic jack burnham and held at the jewish museum in brooklyn, new york city, from 16 september 8 november 1970, and the smithsonian institution, washington, d. Art criticjack burnham pushed the exploration of the rela tionship between art and. Its new meaning for art, at the jewish museum in new york.
Catalog for jack burnhams software exhibition at the jewish museum in new york 1970. In 1970, he curated the exhibition software, information technology. Sheridans interactive paper systems was part of jack burnham s 1970 software exhibition. Exhibition catalogue software, information technology. The below was published in artforum in recognition of his passing jack burnham 19312019, the american art critic and theorist who established the parameters of systems arthis term for. Burnham was interested in cybernetics, communication theory and the concept of open systems, and in correlation to this many of the works he included also featured an aspect of audience participation. We had begun our correspondence months earlier, when i tracked him down to request permission. Printed in great britain notes on jack burnham s concepts of a software exhibition robert mallary jack burnham has been receiving, in my view, the recognition he deserves for his efforts to draw attention to the impact of cybernetics, general systems theory and computers on. Burnham will soon showcase some of these new developments in a 1970 exhibition entitled software. Jack burnham s 1968 artforum essay systems aesthetics and his 1970 software exhibition marked the high point of systemsbased art until its resurgence in the changed conditions of the twentyfirst century. Jack burnham is the most profound and farsighted artist and writer in the 1960s and 70s.
This essay reexamines the interrelationship of these tendencies as they developed in the 1960s, focusing on the art criticism of jack burnham and the artists included in the software exhibition that he curated. Seek 1970 nicholas negroponte with architecture group machine m. Jack burnham, the american art critic and theorist who established the. Conceptual art is more than an artists right to dematerialize, but a subversive investigation into language. Curated by kynaston mcshine, the information exhibition at the museum of modern art demonstrated the concept of systems analysis and its implications for art. Jack burnham s concept of software as a meta phor for art th e soft ware exhibition, curated by jack burnham for the jewish museum in 1970, constituted a remarkable convergence of computers, experimental art practice, and structuralist theory. Jack burnham, writer of prescient criticism about art and. A free powerpoint ppt presentation displayed as a flash slide show on id. This piece consisted of a plexiglass environment full of small blocks and inhabited by gerbils, who continuously changed the position of the blocks. The culmination of this project was the exhibition software staged at the jewish museum in new york in 1970 and burnham s. Its new meaning in art, curated by jack burnham at the jewish museum. This paper identifies and analyzes the convergence of computers, experimental art practice, and structuralist theory in jack burnhams software exhibition at the jewish museum. Catalogue published for the exhibition software, jewish museum, new york.
Eventually, however, shows like jack burnhams software exhibitions at the jewish museum in new york 1970 began to focus on specific questions resulting from the use of technology, rather than putting it on display as a novelty. The show put together computers and conceptual artists, linking them through the idea of software as a process or a program to be carried out by a machine or by the audience based on. Systems, structuralism, demythification 15 influenced by systems theory, burnham recognized that hardware and software mutually affect and interact, determining each others nature for a given problem. Its new meaning for art at the jewish museum in new york. His areas of practice included light sculpture, curation, criticism, and theory. Seek, 1970 by nicholas negroponte with the architecture. Seek, 1970 by nicholas negroponte with the architecture machine group, m.
This piece consisted of a plexiglass encased, computercontrolled environment full of small blocks and inhabited by gerbils, who continuously changed the position of the blocks. The exhibition, organized by, jack burnham, a professor of, art at northwestern university, and a leading theoretician or the art. Systems art systems aesthetics and the system as medium. Its new meaning for art was an exhibition curated by artist and critic jack burnham and held at the jewish. Cybernetic serendipity, curated by jasia reichardt at the institute of contemporary arts in london in 1968. To explore this epistemological rupture, curator jack burnham presented the results of scientific experiments, conducted by research teams and scientists, alongside projects born out of the conceptual. Jack burnham 19312019 jack burnham, the american art critic and theorist who established the parameters of systems arthis term for work, emerging in the 1960s and 70s, that was rooted in digital networks and natural.
The culmination of this project was the exhibition software staged at the jewish museum in new york in 1970 and burnham s theoretical treatise the. Jack burnham, exhibition catalogue software, information technology. After cyberserendipity, which displayed the technological world through its finished products at the ica london, 1968 and its 1968 followup at the moma, the machine at the end of the mechanical age, software focused the attention upon the calculation system of machines in terms of processing. Barbara bloom, an artistcurator at the jewish museum. Software is an exhibition which utilizes sophisticated communications technology,but concentrates on the.
Art historians have generally drawn sharp distinctions between conceptual art and artandtechnology. To explore this epistemological rupture, curator jack burnham presented the. He curated the landmark jewish museum exhibition software. Burnham s software exhibition showed that conceptual art and its signature devaluation of craft and the classical art object could be valorized in several different waysthat is, in terms of semiotics and economics as well as of feedback loops and systems theory. Its new meaning for art, curated by jack burnham at the jewish museum in 1970. S teenage computer pros 64 computers are not what you think by theodor h.
Recovering, reprising and reassessing his work produces a richer reading of. In 1968 the american critic jack burnham published beyond modern sculpture, the first of a series of books and articles on contemporary sculpture produced over the following five years that attempted to establish a postformalist discourse. Project one systems, networks and collaboration seek. Originally shown at the software exhibition, curated by jack burnham for the jewish museum in new york 1970. Software exhibition in 1969, art historian and media theorist dr.
Jack burnham, writer of prescient criticism about art and technology, has died at 87 he curated the landmark jewish. Comments on and description of the catalog of the software show, in french and english, by vincent bonin, daniel langlois foundation, 2004. The historicization of these practices as distinct artistic categories. Its new meaning for art, exhibition catalogue, the jewish museum, new york, 1970, p.
Glusbergs own cybernetics and art, organized at the bonino gallery in buenos aires in 1969. As the clouds of hurricane sandy gathered, i sped north from virginia to maryland en route to interview jack burnham, the elusive curator of the digital art exhibition software 1970 and the author of the influential artforum essay systems esthetics 1968. Curator jack burnham presented the exhibit like a kind of investigation of new processing introduced into the cultural field through calculation. Jack burnham approached professor sheridan about participating in an exhibition he was organizing at the jewish museum in new york for the following year. Art critic jack burnham pushed the exploration of the relationship between art and information technology to an unprecedented point. J47 overs i ze ta167 j 4 7 jewish museumnew york contents.
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