Georgia Muenster
MA work
MA work
Black Box Formula
Black Box Formula is an immersive exhibition that reflects on black box theory. Black boxes are imaginary constructs where processes of any sort are influenced by stimuli but remain unknowable. In this project, mechanisms that are normally invisible are made physical. New works explore various aspects of black box theory, incorporating posthuman thought in terms of prosthetics and human networks.
Though there are multiple types of black box theory, this exhibition draws from the version explored in cybernetics, where the black box’s contents and workings are visibly informed by inputs and outputs but are ultimately mysterious. As the French philosopher and sociologist of science Bruno Latour writes in his 1987 text Science in Action: 'The word black box is used by cyberneticians whenever a piece of machinery or a set of commands is too complex. [...] That is, no matter how controversial their history, how complex their inner workings, how large the commercial or academic networks that hold them in place, only the input and output count.'
Various fields employ different forms of black box theory, often in contrast to one another. While in cybernetics a black box is understood strictly in terms of its input and output, in psychology it is used as a metaphor for the human mind and its intrinsic inscrutability. Marketing science also recognises the mind - specifically the mind of the consumer - as a black box, with buyer behaviour representing the box’s output. In an attempt to boost sales figures, buyer incentives are used as inputs to discover and influence the black box, a method that would be impossible using other forms of the theory.
The exhibition opens with a commissioned animated text by YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, which acts as an ‘input’ for the audience who then enter the metaphorical black box. The ‘formula’ is a rhetorical device that can be used by the viewer, an overarching ideology and further explored within the artwork on display. Works by Zach Blas, Hyungkoo Lee, Lawrence Lek and Harry Sanderson each explore variations on the black box, including its intersections with prosthetics and networks such as the internet, ethernets as well as alternatives to the mainstream net. On exiting the gallery, the audience ultimately produces the ‘output’ in their reception of the work. The Black Box Formula exhibition looks to unravel aspects of the construction of artistic identity and processes, towards a future where prosthetic enhancements and contra-internets are the norm, manifestations of social concerns slowly coming to the boil.
Info
Info
-
MA Degree
School
School of Humanities
Programme
MA Curating Contemporary Art, 2015
-
Contact
-
-
Georgia Muenster is a curator, administrator and organiser whose projects include, but are not limited to, subjects in urban exploration and mapping, psychogeography, gender and collectivity.
She received a BA in Art History from Bard College in 2008 and has a background in a variety of institutions, including time spent as the Press Writer & Curatorial Fellow at Flux Factory until 2013. Her dissertation, Of Place and Space: Psychogeography and Curation, explores the phenomenon of psychogeography in artistic and curatorial contexts, tracing its roots from Surrealist Paris to contemporary London. Her most recent project was the Black Box Formula exhibition as part of the 2015 MA Curating Contemporary Art degree show at the Royal College of Art, which questioned the ‘unknown’ through the lens of black box theory to better understand the nature of exhibition reception.
Moving forward, Georgia is researching collective living practices as part of Utopia School in Copenhagen in 2016.
-
Degrees
- BA Art History, Bard College, 2008
-
Experience
- Press writer and curatorial fellow, Flux Factory, New York, 2008–13; Museum docent, The City Reliquary, Brooklyn, 2012–13; Gallery assistant, Miyako Yoshinaga, New York, 2008–09; Curatorial internship, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, 2008
-
Exhibitions
- Black Box Formula, RCA Henry Moore Galleries, London, 2015; Homecoming, Flux Factory, New York, 2014; Inside|Out, Hackney Picturehouse, London, 2014; Concert Hall, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013; The Wonder Cabinet, Flux Factory, New York, 2013; The Greensborough Junket League, Elsewhere, Greensboro, 2012; The Infamous and Only Somewhat Ambassadorial Outpost of the Semi-Legitimate Nation of Flux, Udstillingsstedet Spanien 19C, Aarhus, 2012 ; The Grand Pram Slam, The Aarhus Center for Visual Art, Aarhus, 2012; Banquet for America, Flux Factory, New York, 2012 ; Sea Worthy, Flux Factory & Gowanus Studio Space, New York, 2011; Inner City, Super G Experiential Residency, Greensboro, 2011; The Self-Destructing Art Show, Flux Factory, New York, 2010; Housebroken, Flux Factory, New York, 2010; Going Places (Doing Stuff), Flux Factory, New York, 2009–11
-
Publications
- 'Notebook', RCA CCA MA project publication, London, 2015; 'The Wonder Cabinet', Flux Factory, New York, 2013; 'The Place and the Light', The Infamous Outpost publication, Udstillingsstedet Spanien 19C, 2012 ; 'On Decadence', The Perfumed Handkerchief, Flux Factory, 2011