Smithsonian American Art Museum
Watch This! Revelations in Media Art
April 24, 2015 – September 7, 2015
Creative and commercial innovations in hi-fidelity stereo, broadcast television, videotape and satellite technologies ignited a frenetic pace of social change through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, simultaneously shattering and shaping modes of communication and expression. From the 80s into the millennium the electronic age burst through to the digital age, advancing in previously inconceivable directions at blinding speeds and opening entirely new terrain for creative exploration that continues today. Artists have fearlessly engaged technological innovation to create an artistic revolution that continuously redefines how we imagine, receive, and understand our time.
Watch This! identifies the pervasive interdependence between technology and contemporary culture. The exhibition includes forty-four works of art from 1941 to 2013, many of which were recently acquired by the museum—including 16 mm films, single-channel video, installations, video games and related ephemera. Thirty artworks in the exhibition will be on display at the museum for the first time.
Monster Movie, Takeshi Murata, 2005
