Talk to Me (exhibition)
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''Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects'' is an exhibition put on by the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
from July 24 to November 7, 2011. Created by the Department of Architecture and Design, it was widely reviewed and drew many visitors. The exhibit was organized by
Paola Antonelli Paola Antonelli (born 1963 in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy) is an Italian author, editor, architect, and curator. She is currently the Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture & Design as well as the Director of R&D at the Museum of Modern ...
, Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Kate Carmody, curatorial assistant. The exhibition explores and showcases the communications, dialogue and interface between people and machines. ''Talk to Me'' features 194 works by 236 artists, some provide information, others act as gateways or interfaces, still others influences our lives in more subtle subliminal ways. Each object's label includes a
QR Code A QR code (an initialism for quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information about th ...
allowing the visitor to view information on the piece's artist, background information on the piece, read tweets posted by other visitors related to the object and includes connections to other objects in the exhibition with similar themes, design or use.


Exhibition Categories

The exhibition is divided into five categories: Objects, Bodies, Life, City, and Worlds. * Objects investigates objects, interfaces, and systems that are not just communicative and interactive but also have personalities. Some are conceptual—such as
Kacie Kinzer Kacie Kinzer (born 1983) is an American designer and interactive artist. Her best known works are a series of cardboard "''tweenbots''", which were designed to get help from people, in order to complete their mission: crossing Washington Square ...
’s Tweenbots, which demonstrate New Yorkers’ irrepressible impulse to help anything or anyone that seems to be lost, even if it is a cardboard robot carrying a little flag—and others functional and functioning, such as the interfaces for the ATM at
Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...
or the
MetroCard The MetroCard is a magnetic stripe card used for fare payment on transportation in the New York City area. It is the primary payment method for the New York City Subway (including the Staten Island Railway), New York City Transit buses and MTA ...
Vending Machine. * Bodies focuses on the communication between people by means of objects. The human body and mind are the central agents and subjects of study in this chapter, expressing and explaining themselves in ways previously unthinkable. * Designers search for the meaning of Life in their own empirical and suggestive ways. * The City, with its density and complex infrastructures and systems relies on communication for its own sheer survival. This chapter shows the changed role of designers—from creators of form and function to enablers, inspirers, and facilitators—in particular detail. * In Worlds what most of these technologies have in common is the fact that they are based on systems and rely on network connections, just like the natural world, and understanding their design should be and often is a requirement for those building the elements that come together to constitute these physical and virtual worlds, from designers and architects to engineers and television executives. For those who are not willing or able to understand systems but still need access to them, there are interfaces that function as zones of engagement and exchange.


Art Works

* Cross-fire from the Natural Occurrence series (2010) is an animation directed by Geoffrey Mann and produced by Chris Labrooy. A dinner table is set with plates, cups, and silverware that have motion running through them while an audio that sounds like a general wife to husband argument plays. It is shown to give you the impression of the sounds running through the table set up. * Eyewriter (2009) is a display that shows video and visual examples of the connection between art and technology. It is based on a graffiti artist who goes by, Tempt1 who was diagnosed with
ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...
in 2003. It prevented him from being able to physically continue his art work in which he began to use new technology that allowed him to use his eye movements in order to continue creating. * Animal Superpowers: Ant and Giraffe (2008) is a technology that gives a person the ability to have animal senses such as the Ant and/or Giraffe. This display shows a young girl wearing the device that allowed her to see like an ant, magnifying her vision 50 times to giving her the visual perspective of an ant. This display also contains the actual device for viewing purposes. * Bat Billboard (2008) by
Natalie Jeremijenko Natalie Jeremijenko (born 1966) is an artist and engineer whose background includes studies in biochemistry, physics, neuroscience and precision engineering. She is an active member of the net.art movement, and her work primarily explores t ...
displays a picture of a billboard/ disease-free bat habitat in order to create a bridge between humans and bats. "The billboard inventively reclaims urban infrastructure for animal habitat and also functions as a public face for the bats, translating their habits and activities in a way that humans can understand."Antoneli, Paola. Talk To Me Catalog: Design and the Communication between People and Objects. MoMA. 2011. * Notepad (2008) by
Matt Kenyon Matthew Kenyon (born 1977) is an American new media artist and director of the art practice, S.W.A.M.P. (Studies of Work Atmosphere and Mass Production). Kenyon focuses on critical themes addressing global corporate operations, mass media, mili ...
and Douglas Easterly of S.W.A.M.P., with what looks like an ordinary yellow legal pad is revealed (when magnified) to be micro-printed text enumerating the full names, dates and locations of each Iraqi civilian death on record over the first three years of the Iraq War. Hundred of these notepads have been covertly distributed to US representatives and senators, as a sort of Trojan horse, injecting transgressive data straight into the halls of power and memorializing it in official archives.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Review
NY Times

interview Museum of Modern Art (New York City) exhibitions 2011 in art