In Forming Software: Systems, Structuralism, Demythification

Abstract

In the mid-1960s, Marshall McLuhan prophesied that electronic media were creating an increasingly interconnected global village. Such pronouncements popularized the idea that the era of machine-age technology was drawing to a close, ushering in a new era of information technology. This shift finds parallels in a wave of major art performances and exhibitions between 1966-1970, including nine evenings: theatre and engineering at the New York Armory, spearheaded by Robert Rauschenberg, Billy Klüver, and Robert Whitman in 1966; The Machine: As Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age, curated by Pontus Hultén at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA) in 1968; Cybernetic Serendipity, curated by Jasia Reichardt at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London in 1968; and Software, Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art, curated by Jack Burnham at the Jewish Museum in New York.

Keywords

• media art
• comunication
• structuralism