Cybernetics of the Poor

Artists: Robert Adrian X • Agency • Ana de Almeida, Alicja Rogalska & Vanja Smiljanić • Eleanor Antin • Cory Arcangel • Elena Asins • Paolo Cirio • Coleman Collins • Salvador Dalí & Philippe Halsman • Hanne Darboven • Jon Mikel Euba • Michael Hakimi • Douglas Huebler • Gema Intxausti • Mike Kelley • Ferdinand Kriwet • Agnieszka Kurant • Sharon Lockhart • Mario Navarro • Adrian Piper • Kameelah Janan Rasheed • Lili Reynaud-Dewar • Heinrich Riebesehl • Pedro G. Romero • Constanze Ruhm • Jörg Schlick • Camila Sposati • Axel Stockburger • Kathrin Stumreich • Isidoro Valcárcel Medina • Tanja Widmann • Oswald Wiener • …

Curators: Diedrich Diederichsen and Oier Etxeberria

In cooperation with Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture, Donostia/San Sebastián

Cybernetics of the Poor examines the relationship between art and cybernetics and their intersections in the past and present. From the late 1940s on, the term cybernetics began to be used to describe self-regulating systems that measure, anticipate, and react in order to intervene in changing conditions. Initially relevant mostly in the fields of administration, planning, and criminology, and early ecology, under digital capitalism cybernetics has become an economic factor (see: big data). In such a cybernetic totality art must respond to a new situation: as a cybernetics of the poor.

This exhibition presents works that use the powerlessness of art—its poverty—vis-à-vis the cybernetic machine to propose countermodels. In addition, the show gathers recent and historical works by artists who believed in cybernetics as a participatory, playful practice or were pioneers in delineating a counter-cybernetics. How much of the “counterforce” (Thomas Pynchon) exists within art when it is conceived as a cybernetics of the poor?

Cybernetics of the Poor was shown in its first iteration at Tabakalera in the spring and summer of 2020. The subtitle of that exhibition, Tutorials, Exercises and Scores, named three different genres curators Diedrich Diederichsen and Oier Etxeberria identified as using either anticybernetic or cybernetic artistic strategies. In addition to presenting a selection of examples of these genres, the show’s second installment in Vienna focuses on cybernetic instruments of social control and methods of circumventing it as well as the art market’s very own economic cybernetics.

The exhibition is complemented by an extensive public program, taking place live as well as in digital space. It includes artistic activations of the exhibition space, interventions by participants in the “Cybernetics of the Poor” seminar (Master in Critical Studies course at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), and a symposium, as well as a multifaceted program of guided tours.

Coleman Collins Guilt Coin
During the exhibition Cybernetics of the Poor, Coleman Collins’s installation will be activated every Thursday from 3 to 7 pm and on Sat 6/3 and 13/3 from 2 to 6 pm through the sale of Guilt Coin in the booth he has put in place. This coin has been derived from the ultra-cybernetic Bitcoin currency and inspired by the word Schuld which in German means both “guilt” and “debt”. Therefore, this currency plays with notions of moral and ethical control and the limits of value.

Pay what you can
It hasn’t been possible to enjoy a physical encounter with art and culture for a long time. The difficult economic circumstances for many people should not present an obstacle to finally visit exhibitions now. So we are offering Pay what you can at Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier: until the end of April, you can decide the admission fee that you pay – each contribution is a sign of your appreciation of our program, all proceeds flow into the arts.

Opening hours
Tuesday – Sunday 11 am – 7 pm

Download Guilt Coin FAQ
  
 

RELATED CONTENT

  
My View tour with Axel Stockburger
My View tour with Arantzazu Saratxaga Arregi
Camila Sposati – Cybernetics of the Poor Podcast
Constanze Ruhm – Cybernetics of the Poor Podcast
Artist tour with Ana de Almeida
Ana de Almeida, Alicja Rogalska & Vanja Smiljanić – Cybernetics of the Poor Podcast
Interview Diedrich Diederichsen
Axel Stockburger – Cybernetics of the Poor Podcast
Curator’s tour with Diedrich Diederichsen
  
 

PROGRAM