Title: Katherine Behar: Ack! Knowledge! Work! (Exhibition)
Year: 2024.
Exhibited:
Press:
"A Network of Machines Speaking Only with Each Other"
by Chase Bucklew for Los Angeles Review of Books, April 19, 2024.
"Machines Cannot Replace Human Boredom"
by Renée Reizman for Hyperallergic, April 9, 2024.
Photography: Yubo Dong, ofstudio photography
Katherine Behar acknowledges the work of Contributors:
Veronica Allen, Ash Arias, Bitstance, Will Bond, Tom Bray, Fee Christoph, Niko Chodor, Janis Choi, Nicole Companik, Aian Cowart, Rebecca Cuomo, Zuri Fors, Stream Gao, Nola Gibson, Charlotte Griffin, Maximillian Harper, The Honk-Tweet, James Kennedy, Aliya Kerimujiang, Charlie Lenny, Justin Lowman, Loc Luong, Dennis Lupresto, Tommy Martinez, Nancy Nguyen, Tom Nguyen, Thea Oldfield, Darrian O'Reilly, Alia Paddock, Kris Paulsen, Jenny Phan, Prettymega, Kevin Ramsay, Jennifer Rhee, Scott Richmond, Monica Robles, Lorraine Rudin, Silvia Ruzanka, Whitney Schmanski, David Sheinkopf, Emily Tottori, Dr. Kelli Sharp, Cesar Sigala, Myles Stelling, Karthik Urs, Waeli Wang, Magnolia Yang Sao Yia, and Ok Joo Yoo.
And thanks Supporters and Advisors:
Andrew Ames, Irina Aristarkhova & Guna Nadarajan, Jon Behar & Meghann Riepenhoff, Ken Behar & Linda Liu Behar, Miriam Behar & Mark Kornbluh, Tuixén Benet, Heidi Bennett, Allison Berkoy, Heidi Boisvert, Jesse Bonnell, Jeanel Cassidy, David Cecchetto, Christina Cho, Audrey Collette, Gabe Cottrell, Terence Crimes, David Familian, Alison Griffiths, Terike Haapoja, Maya Hilbert, Christine Holtz, Jesse Colin Jackson, Chad Jenkins, Eileen Joy, Marianne M. Kim, Anna Kirkland, Dominika Ksel, Jessica Lang, Ezra LeBank, Daniel Lichtman, Jen Liu, David Long, Fatima Manalili, Kat Mustatea, Taisha Paggett, Carol Parkinson, Scott Penkava, Nicole Perry, Michael Ploof, Ino Yang Popper, Chris Pounds & Gerardo Okhuysen, Damen Provost, Christian Sandvig, Lee Anne Schmitt, Kate Sicchio, Lynn Sullivan, Sutu, Dawn Stoppiello, Alisha Tejpal, Gabriel Tolson, Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei, Devin Wilson, and Zebulon Zang.
Works in this exhibition were created in part through generous support from:
Black Box Projects at the Beall Center for Art + Technology; Blackbox Studios; Creative Capital; Harvestworks; ISPACE at California State University, Long Beach; Dr. Kelli Sharp's Lab and the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine; MacDowell; University of Michigan's Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, Institute for Research on Women and Gender, Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing, Robotics Institute, Arts Engine, and UROP; Pioneer Works; PSC-CUNY Awards jointly funded by the Professional Staff Congress and the City University of New York; Robert Morris University; Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College, CUNY; and the University of Washington Surplus Store.
In Ack! Knowledge! Work! interactive installations, video works, and sculptures address how digital technologies of automation are reforming the future of labor. Katherine Behar invites us to "acknowledge" crucial labor that automation makes invisible and to question the supposed intelligence of "knowledge work" as artificial intelligence encroaches on traditionally white-collar jobs. Simultaneously, the exhibition gives a nod to the conflicted "Ack!" so many of us feel about work and automation: we understand that automation could lead to unemployment, but even so we wish tedious work could be automated away.