Dartmouth Events

This lecture addresses a recent exhibition phenomenon associated with contemporary time-based art: the preponderance of beds, beanbag chairs and other horizontal viewing platforms in the installation, display and reception of such work. What might these new artistic and curatorial strategies tell us about cultures of media today, particularly when compared to earlier examples from the 1960s? Indeed, in black box spaces around the world, from London to Berlin to Beijing to Sao Paulo to Los Angeles, viewers have been increasingly solicited to go horizontal. Departing from Niki de Saint Phalle’s She (1966) – a media environment represented by a recumbent, female figure – the paper argues that lying in the gallery chimes with technologies of work post-internet: specifically, our literal incorporation of its media platforms and the generalization of the network as a ubiquitous and ambient resource.