Medium_Massage 2.0 :: an infinite inventory

 

• Medium Kate Armstrong
• View Source Myfanwy Ashmore
• Jeremy Bailey
• McLu-uhms David Jhave Johnston
• The MOUCHETTE fanshop Mouchette (Martine Neddam)
• Carnal Fury Rafaël Rozendaal
• Discoverable Place in Cyberspace Cheryl Sourkes
• Social Media Drawings Donna Szoke
• sorrybot KD Thornton

“All media are extensions of some human faculty – psychic or physical”
The Medium is The Massage, Marshall McLuhan p 26

Medium_Massage 2.0 :: an infinite inventory is a net-based exhibition inspired by Marshall McLuhan and graphic designer Quentin Fiore’s collaborative book The Medium is the Massage. Published in 1967 in an experimental format that fused Fiore’s engaging graphic style and visual language with McLuhan’s text, The Medium is the Massage introduced McLuhan’s theories of media and communications technology to a mass audience. With 2011 being the centennial of Marshall McLuhan’s birth, and 20 years since the development of the first webpage, how are McLuhan’s prophetic theories reflected by a generation of media artists immersed in the networked medium and cultural shift that he predicted back in the 60s?

Medium_Massage 2.0 features work from pioneers of net art from the 90’s to a new generation of artists who explore networked media in their multidisciplinary practice. The exhibition includes a new expanded version of The Medium is the Massage matched with compositionally similar images using google algorithms; a sorrybot that gives a unique apology to every citizen on earth; new web software that re-invents the way artists communicate with the media; an archeological examination of 8 bit-graphic images and obsolescent media through daily floppy disc mining; and more!

Curated by Michael Alstad, Medium_Massage 2.0 is presented by Year Zero One in collaboration with the CONTACT Gallery for the McLuhan100 Festival.  A selection of Medium_Massage 2.0 artists will crossover from a virtual to a gallery medium at the CONTACT Gallery in Toronto:

80 Spadina Ave, Suite 310
November 5th – December 3rd, 2011
opening reception, November 5th, 2 – 5pm

YZO gratefully acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support of Medium_Massage 2.0