katherine behar
katherine behar: this.construction();

Title: Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill)
Media: Keyboard keys, fabric, adhesive, Styrofoam.
Dimensions: 34" x 34" x 37".
Year: 2016.
Exhibited:

  • "Digital Trash." Group exhibition, curated by Jim Brown and Robert Emmons. Stedman Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, USA. September 2018 (Catalog)
  • "Homecoming." Group exhibition, curated by Sarah Watson. Leubsdorf Gallery, New York, NY, USA. April 2017
  • "Katherine Behar: Data's Entry | Veri Girişi." Solo exhibition at Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey. Sept 8–Oct 16, 2016. Curated by Fatma Colakoglu and Ulya Soley.

Credits:

Special Thanks: Jeanel Cassidy, Alison Griffiths, Charlie Lenny, Alia Paddock, Jenny Phan, Lynn Sullivan, and the University of Washington Surplus Store Supported in part by the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College, and by a PSC-CUNY Award, jointly funded by the Professional Staff Congress and the City University of New York.

Photos: Christine Dalenta.

art: Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill)
click to enlarge:
Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) - Katherine Behar Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) - Katherine Behar Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) - Katherine Behar Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) - Katherine Behar Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) - Katherine Behar Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) - Katherine Behar

Description

A malleable form covered with over 6,000 keys harvested from used QWERTY keyboards.

Statement

The word data first appeared in English in the phrase "a heap of data" in 1646. The word cloud dates to ninth-century Old English, when, spelled clúd, it meant a "mass of rock" or "hill." Today we imagine cloud computing and data as immaterial, but Data Cloud (A Heap, A Mass, A Rock, A Hill) renders them physically as a mound of keyboard keys. In this imagined interface, each key represents a singular input point or datum, but en masse they take on an analog dimension, becoming weighty, unwieldy, and grounded.

Inspired by the Pera Museum's Anatolian Weights and Measures Collection, this project seeks to restore weight to data's measure.