Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World
California Museum of Photography and Culver Center of the Arts
September 21, 2024 to February 2, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, October 26, 3-6pm - free and open to the public
We are pleased to announce that Sonya Rapoport will be included in Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World at California Museum of Photography and Culver Center of the Arts (UCR ARTS at UC Riverside), part of Pacific Standard Time: PST ART. This extensive exhibition explores the creative history of digital imaging technology.
Digital Capture will feature computer artworks on paper, performance ephemera, and a sculptural installation from Objects On My Dresser (1979-83), Rapoport’s most ambitious interactive computer artwork.
Read previews of this major exhibition:
Are Art and Science Forever Divided? Or Are They One and the Same?, New York Times
The busy person’s guide to PST ‘Art & Science Collide’ exhibitions, LA Times
Where is the big museum blockbuster on AI?, The Art Newspaper
Begun while Rapoport was mourning the death of her mother, Objects On My Dresser makes use of twenty nine personal objects sourced from the tansu dresser in the artist’s bedroom. Rapoport began by unpacking these objects in the context of psychoanalytic discussions with her collaborator, Winfred De Vos. She then systematically categorized these objects and visualized their meanings and relationships using the computer. This became the basis for multiple thematic evolutions and public interactions that document evolving responses to the objects and their connective associations.
The installation at UCR ARTS will reflect an exhibition of Objects On My Dresser, entitled A 20th Century Portrait, that was shown at LOCUS, a storefront space in Los Angeles, in 1982.
Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World is an ambitious exhibition spanning six decades (1962–2020s) that investigates the history and creative uses of digital imaging technology, from the genesis of digital imaging in Southern California research laboratories during the Cold War and Space Race of the 1960s, to the ubiquity of digital media in our contemporary world. The exhibition and accompanying digital publication narrate the ideological shifts that occurred as digital technologies were adopted for artistic ends. Conceptually organized into themes exploring issues of agency, representation, culpability, and connection, Digital Capture features over 40 artists working across several technological, computing, and imaging media.
Digital Capture: Southern California and the Pixel-Based Image World is co-curated by Nikolay Maslov and April Baca. Exhibition concept by Douglas McCulloh. January Parkos Arnall is curatorial advisor.
The exhibition is among more than 60 exhibitions and programs presented as part of Pacific Standard Time’s latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide. This landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present.