The Gym of Obsolete Technology

2016

The Gym of Obsolete Technology was a group exhibition and event series initiated and programmed by Helena Sanders and Margarita Osipian, as well as an installation of the same name, built by the two at the entrance of the exhibition; a surreal, interactive gym space of ethernet cable climbing ropes, iMac medicine balls, hard drive free weights, mirrored walls and Atari press-up benches.

For information on the exhibition as a whole (participating artist list, images, program description and broadcast archives), please visit : https://w139.nl/en/event/gym-of-obsolete-technology-3/

W139, Amsterdam, NL

*Custom vinyl iMac covers and extensive production help with vinyl flooring from Maartje van de Mortel/Atelier Stitsj

*Exhibition graphic identity by Nicole Martens

…The participating artists of Gym of Obsolete Technology branch out to deal with topics such as economies of energy, our fantasies of physical interaction with the digital, the clumsiness of technology, use and obsolescence in our social experience of technology, digital materiality, how the sacred is transformed through digital simulation, and the visualization of invisible signals. The exhibition illuminates the increasingly invisible and ubiquitous digital form, while simultaneously pointing to the weight and waste generated by planned obsolescence and a tireless quest for ‘innovation’ and novelty in digital objects.

…[the artists] visualize and give form to the tensions between the analogue and the digital that come into being during moments of transference, circumvention, and interference…