Database imaginary

Steve Dietz
http://databaseimaginary.banff.org

Databases drive culture. 33 artists take us on an imaginative and subversive ride. The artists presented in Database Imaginary use databases to comment on their uses and to imagine unknown uses. The term database was only coined in the 1970s with the rise of automated office procedures, but the 23 projects in this exhibition - which includes wooden sculptures, movies and telephone user-generated guides to the local area - deploy databases in imaginative ways to comment on everyday life in the 21st century. Using newly inflected forms of visual display arising from computerized databases, the works seem to raise questions about authorship, agency, audience participation, control and identity.
Work Artist Date
1 1:1 Interface: Every Lisa Jevbratt/C5 1999
2 Agonistics: A Language Game Warren Sack 2004
3 Data Diaries Cory Arcangel 2003
4 Data Mining the Amazon Angie Waller 2002
5 Databank of the Everyday Natalie Bookchin 1996
6 Encyclopædia Alan Currall 2000
7 Faculty of Taxonomy University of Ope... 2004
8 File Room, The Muntadas 1994-2004
9 Giver of Names, The David Rokeby 1990 - (in progress)
10 How I Learned (1-4) Jennifer and Kevi... 2002
11 Lungs-London.pl Harwood/Mongrel 2004
12 Memory Theater Pablo Helguera 2004
13 Mobile Scout: A Field Guide Julian Bleecker, ... 2004
14 Shelf Life / Drawing Conclusions Edward Poitras 2004
15 Slippery Traces George Legrady 1995
16 Soft Cinema: Mission to Earth Lev Manovich 2004
17 Status Project, The Heath Bunting and... 2004
18 Swipe Beatriz da Costa,... 2002
19 Template Cinema: Short Films About Flying Thomson & Craighe... 2002
20 Things Spoken Agnes Hegedus 1999
21 TreatyCard version 2 (tcv2) Cheryl L'Hirondel... 2002-2004
22 Unmovie Philip Pocock, on... 2002
23 Visitors' Profile, Directions 3: Eight Artists, Milwaukee Art Centre, June 19 through August 8, 1971 Hans Haacke 1971