Purchase Event 2: Off the Grid at the Neuberger

The Neuberger Museum was recently host to a selection of artists whose work made use of various media to communicate different uses of new technology and our relationship to them. Trevor Paglen looks at knowledge hidden by the government and covert operations by the C.I.A., and methods at exposing these things. Louis Shock uses new public media, sometimes typically used for advertising space, to remind onlookers about tragedies largely ignored in public spaces. Seth Weiner looks at social interaction with technology and its implications.

Trevor Paglen’s work is interesting in how technology can be an aid in the dissemination of information. Photographing “black ops” military bases in the Middle East and using assistance from planespotters on the internet to track unregistered government airplanes, he showed how technology can be used to inform the masses of things being done behind their backs.

Louis Shock appropriated public advertising spaces to display photographs of victims of domestic abuse and murdered prostitutes. Displayed alongside the letters “NHI” (for “no humans involved”), these displays showed how some victims are not recognized as human if their deaths are not socially acceptable for conversation, or not topics we find pleasant to discuss.

Seth Weiner provided a number of perspectives on social ideas of technology. Providing a fish with the capacity for movement beyond its fishbowl, looking at the Unabomber’s cabin, he seems to be interested in exploring the implications of new technologies in different contexts.

Trevor Paglen and Louis Shock are both interested in how explorations of different technologies and new media can be used as agents of social activism and social/political awareness. Seth Weiner provides a broader perspective, not simply looking to use new media and technologies, but looking at the way in which they are used.