New Talent

Pairing films and poetry works from the 1960s and early ‘70s with contemporary artists’ and technologists’ interventions, New Talent presents works that explore the nexus between art, technology, and poetry. Taking its name from the article, “New Talent—The Computer,” written by the artist and filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek for Art in America in 1970—a text that reflects upon early computer technology as a field of poetic experimentation, readjustment, and miscalculation—this exhibition examines artistic practices that self-consciously investigate the laws of technology while simultaneously finding means in which to creatively disobey them.

INSTALLATION VIEWS

Featuring a program of computer-generated films from the 1960s and early ‘70s by Lillian Schwartz, Stan VanDerBeek, and John Whitney; period works of avant-garde poetry created using computer programming languages; an interdisciplinary salon with a lecture and series of performances by the Amateur Astronomers Society of Voorhees in collaboration with Columbia Astronomy Public Outreach; a newly commissioned artists’ book by Gerardo Madera; and an experimental writing workshop taught by Allison Parrish, the exhibition looks at historical moments of technological transformation in connection with contemporary concerns, coalescing creative methodologies that seek to carve out spaces for both interference and humor within the technological apparatus.