Photo courtesy of MOWA | DTN in Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel
If I were to mention that I viewed an art exhibition of computer-based artwork that flirted with the spectacular, I think the assumption would be that the spectacle involved moving images, light and other sensational magic tricks associated with the productive potential of new media. In the case of Nathaniel Stern’s exhibition at the Museum of Wisconsin Art Downtown (MOWA | DTN), “The World After Us” (a name modified from Alan Weisman’s fascinating account of human ephemerality), the impact of his computer-generated art is based on computers and other technology itself—like the actual machines and hardware witnessed in various stages of degradation and reclamation.
It was a gut check to walk into the gallery on my cell phone, vaguely considering the refrain that I, like many of us, are “slaves” to our devices, and then witnessing the chaotic tangle of computers, motherboards and cellphones all bent to the Frankensteinian will of Stern, professor, artist and semi-mad scientist. As I stood in front of a blender filled with ravaged old Androids and RAZRs, a toaster holding a charred smartphone and what looked like a rotating cellphone torture rack, I might have put my thumb over the camera of my iPhone to prevent it from seeing the slaughter. But my phone should rest assured that these strange medieval-looking experiments with technology are all made with salvaged hardware procured through a program at UW-Milwaukee; no phones were hurt in the making of this exhibition.
What might look like a graveyard or torture dungeon for spent hardware is actually a more redemptive setting. Stern’s no sado-technologist; rather, he’s an esthetic researcher hoping to reorient our relationship to computer waste by forcing us to look at it in new ways. Standing before a wall of degraded laptops and cables in the main gallery, appropriately titled “The Wall After Us,” I was reminded of Edward Burtynsky’s photographs of accumulated technological waste. It occurred to me that he and Stern are both grappling with an inversion of that quote by Joseph Stalin that one death is a tragedy and a million is a statistic. One personal device connects you with the world and reflects your individuality, while thousands of them in a pile is a tragic reminder of human limitations.
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Confronting these limitations seems so important to Stern precisely because the marketing teams in Silicon Valley exert so much force in the opposite direction. From the consumer side, computers are presented as pure, precious, transportive, liberating and enlightened. Apple Stores are designed to be visions of positivity. Stern notes in the catalog’s introduction that one of his profound revelations in researching this project was learning that waste from mining the raw materials vastly surpasses that of the products themselves, which means that simply engaging in responsible disposal is not enough by itself to arrive at sustainable levels of technological consumption.
For this reason, Stern, who began thinking about the exhibition in terms of our “intimate” relationships with technology, soon started to look at e-waste from different perspectives. He considered the legal and regulatory issues around disposal and ultimately began to wonder about the creative and inspirational possibilities that might result from his visual research. The “Phossils” that arise from these more experimental approaches provide the show some needed optimism and an entry point for those who would naturally begin thinking about solutions.
Stern collaborated with Cornell professor Johannes Lehmann, an expert in the burning material in zero oxygen known as pyrolysis. Collaborations between the two result in some wonderfully strange attempts to denature keyboards, circuit boards and other hardware. It’s alchemy for the 21st century—trying to spin silicone back into carbon. On the brighter side of dystopia are a series of mechanical tools cast from melted down aluminum from MacBooks—a hammer, saw and screwdriver—as well as a number of prints made with carbon-based ink refined from incinerated hardware. These restitutive moments are the sugar that helps one swallow the show’s more bitter realities.
The single most beautiful vision in the show is the large photograph of a mushroom rising from the face of an Apple watch, caught at the moment a single drop of water falls from its cap. “Sporadical” is a fine metaphoric punctuation for “The World After Us.” It encapsulates the ephemerality of our precious devices, their implicit battle with the natural world and all the accidental “third things” that might arise as if by magic from those encounters. Stern confessed to me that, after seeing the show, a young girl decided to reimagine her science project and began researching e-waste. He mentioned that it made all his labor worthwhile. Even though we have no idea to what end her enthusiasm and basic research will lead, it’s hope all the same. Those unpredictable future events are the exhibition’s most precious content, but we’ll all have to wait for them patiently over the coming decades.
The World After Us runs through March 25 at MOWA | DTN in Saint Kate—The Arts Hotel, 139 E. Kilbourn Ave.
Visual Arts Openings
Weekly Art Drop-Ins for Kids
Various dates through Feb. 27
Lynden Sculpture Garden
2145 W. Brown Deer Road
On various Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the month, Lynden offers “Art Drop-Ins” for kids. These are divvied up according to age cohort rather nicely; they’re grouped from ages 2 to 4, 4 to 6 and 6 to 11. Drop-Ins are informal art explorations in which kids are invited to come for 30 minutes or stay for two-and-a-half hours. They can visit weekly or stop by when their parents are looking for a good after-school activity for them. They can also bring a friend or sibling or try it on their own. Each week, Lynden’s presenters introduce different materials, processes and themes and get the kids started on various art projects. The general focus is on three-dimensional artmaking, though Lynden also offers opportunities for plenty of painting, drawing and collaging. The kids have a great backdrop for their art exploration, too: Lynden’s collection of monumental sculpture and 40 acres of park, lake and woodland. For more information, call 414-446-8794 or visit lyndensculpturegarden.org.
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