The Thousands

Sure, it is by a super-famous dude and has a lot of text on the walls explaining what things are and what they’re about, but Recorders is kind of an atypical museum show. Contrary to the behind-velvet-ropes or plate glass ‘Don’t’ vibe most exhibitions need to have in place, the gallery has signs and people telling you to touch the art. Grab a hold of it, talk to it, ask it a question, play with it. This collection of works create their content through being viewed, aggregating data histories that update and change with each observation. Each experience of viewing is unique, and cannot be obtained without the viewer contributing something to the work.

Recorders uses technologies that can identify where you are in a space and start filming you, that can tell where your forehead is in a mirror and project a word onto it, that will archive your image or your voice or your heart rate. Your experience of the ways others have participated in the narrativised and narrativising recording operations of these works becomes a trace part of future participations. It’s kind of like Questacon, but with way more agonies of selfhood.