This is an interactive program in whic the user inputs a search term, and a google image search fills the walls of a virtual space with the results. The stills at left are from an example search for "barbara kruger".

This grew from a seminar in open source culture, taught by Mark Tribe. In it,I was thinking about the parallels between our frequent discussions of institutional critique and curatatorial power with the stature of google as an internet-defining institution; what happens when we cut out the middleman and let google curate gallery shows? The program prompts us for what we want the show to be about, runs a google image search on the terms, and fills our space with the results, framing the material in the trappings of the spot-lit white walls of a gallery, artificially endowing them with contemplative value.

My idea of a virtual gallery is not meant to be an "online exhibition"; I realize that this is not at all a good way to show work online:it's messy, skews the works, etc. But I am interested in mimicking all these messy distractions of a real gallery. I want people milling around blocking your view, I want your first glance of a work to be skewed around a corner, I want the noise and hastily lit rectangular walls. I want all the trappings that a modernist art presentation would like to avoid (but the same trappings that an institutional critique claims endows an object with art value). So I'm not making an online exhibition as much as mimicking or parodying a real exhibition.


Sample movie of program in action (Quicktime, 9MB, 1:11)

Sample movie of program in action (Windows AVI, 8MB, 1:11)


Source Patches for max/msp/jitter