Gym of Obsolete Technology: An Innovative Exhibition

In Creating Happiness, Recent Posts by Barbara Jacoby

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During the Christmas holidays, we were fortunate enough to visit with my sister’s family in Texas. One of the highlights was to share some time with my gifted artist niece, Helena Sanders, who I don’t have the chance to see very often since she lives in the Netherlands. I quickly became aware of the fact that she was noticeably absent from many of the group gatherings, squirreled away in another room on the computer. But, I was so excited when I learned the reason why. She was busy working away on a very special art project that she was co-producing titled “Gym of Obsolete Technology” that will be opening this coming Friday, January 29, 2016 in Amsterdam in W139.

Although I am not able to attend this event in person and all that it has to offer, I wanted to share the information about this event and all of the offerings that will be included during its two-week run.Barbara Jacoby

The build out was created by a team of artists from around the world from their inspiration based upon a premise as they have described it in the following manner:

Helena Sanders getting ready for The Gym of Obsolete Technology Exhibit.

When thousands of protesters took to the streets of Cairo to demand an end to the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian government cut the nation off from all forms of incoming and outgoing online communications. The breakdown, or disconnection, of wireless networks caused a rise in analogue communications and illuminated the physical structure of power and control that exists in what we often perceive to be ‘immaterial’ and decentralized communications channels.

The exhibition Gym of Obsolete Technology in W139 opens on the 29th of January and runs through until the 21st of February. During Gym of Obsolete Technology, artists visualize and give form to the tensions between the analogue and the digital that come into being during moments of transference, circumvention, and interference. art2

Imagine a space where visitors can pass iMacs back and forth like medicine balls. Where virtual reality experiences lead the brain while old hard drives train muscles during a fitness class. The ‘gym’ installation serves as the entrance point into the exhibition, where visitors can interact with the weight of obsolete technologies in a surreal gym framework.

With the original intention in mind, the participating artists of Gym of Obsolete Technology branch out to deal with topics such as economies of energy, our fantasies of physical interaction with the digital, the clumsiness of technology, use and obsolescence in our social experience of technology, digital materiality, how the sacred is transformed through digital simulation, and the visualization of invisible signals. The exhibition illuminates the increasingly invisible and ubiquitous digital form, while simultaneously pointing to the weight and waste generated by planned obsolescence and a tireless quest for ‘innovation’ and novelty in digital objects.

Although I am not able to attend this event in person and all that it has to offer, I wanted to share the information about this event and all of the offerings that will be included during its two-week run. And I will be so excited to follow the activities through the postings that have already begun on Twitter through the link provided on information link.

Wishing incredible success to all involved in this most amazing undertaking!