Join us for artsmart, an exclusive after-hours event. Enjoy a private tour of I Was Raised on the Internet, followed by a night of conversation and mingling in the museum.

—

I Was Raised on the Internet focuses on how the internet has changed the way we experience the world. Due to new types of gaming and entertainment and the rise of social media and alternative modes of representation, the everyday is no longer what it used to be. The ways we interact with each other have shifted through the connected nature of telecommunications devices across the internet, including mobile applications, social media platforms, and large search engines that have become everyday tools for individuals from all walks of life. New modes, not only of seeing but also of feeling, have emerged in response to this.

I Was Raised on the Internet documents a specific moment in time, beginning with 1998 and extending to the present, and focuses on the shifts that have occurred since the millennium. The nearly 100 works in the exhibition span photography, painting, sculpture, film, and video, as well as emerging technologies and interactive elements, which include interactive computer works and virtual reality. Among these are new adaptations of major bodies of work, as well as new commissions from some of the most significant artists working with these ideas today.

The exhibition seeks to put into language the idea of the “millennial’”—in the truest sense of the word—extrapolating the terms used by artists and creative practitioners in relation to the internet, including the so-called post-internet phenomenon. Fittingly, the viewer is an active agent, engaging new forms of networked behavior and participating both in the gallery space and beyond, through additional digital works hosted online. I Was Raised on the Internet plays with the dystopic connotations of our online multiverse but also is a direct reaction to the utopic beginnings of the world of computing.

The exhibition comprises five sections, each describing a different mode of interaction between the viewer and the art object: Look at Me considers new, more fluid forms of identity that have flourished in a world where social media has led to a performance of the self and a networking with others. Touch Me traces the limits of translating information and digital images into real space. This chapter focuses on art’s fluid boundaries between two- and three-dimensions, and addresses the ways individuals are increasingly seeing touch and sensuality as entirely new constructs in the world of the internet. Control Me addresses the pervasive culture of surveillance and data collection that network technology enables. How do we create a visual vocabulary for state control, and what future can this vocabulary enable for us as citizens? Play with Me documents the ways in which art grapples with the move toward immersive and interactive technologies developing today, in which the visitor is not merely a passive viewer but an active agent in the work. Finally, Sell Me Out focuses on corporate culture and consumerism. Artists take up ideas from marketing, such as brand identity, with a critical eye to expose, critique, and participate in our late capitalist landscape, and to imagine new futures for the labor of buying and selling. Additionally, viewers can access each section’s online works through an exhibition website.

This exhibition is presented in the Griffin Galleries of Contemporary Art and the Turner Gallery.

—

artsmart chair: Alison Schaffer Bloom

artsmart committee: Torie Conn, Amanda Fraerman, Andrew Fraerman, Harrison Freund, Jason Guo, Olivia Ifergan, JP Liebenson, Jack Lubeznik, Christina Ochs, Oliver Plotkin, Diana Rdzanek, Daniel Schaffer, Jane Seder, Michael Stone, Juliya Talmacheva, McKenzie Thompson, and Julie White

ARTISTS FEATURED IN I WAS RAISED ON THE INTERNET INCLUDE:
Sophia Al-Maria (Qatari-American, b. 1983)
American Artist (American, b. 1989)
Anna Anthropy (American)
Cory Arcangel (American, b. 1978)
Jeremy Bailey (Canadian, b. 1979)*
Zach Blas (American, b. 1981)
Nate Boyce (American, b. 1982)
Ingrid Burrington (American)
Cao Fei (Chinese, b. 1978)
Antoine Catala (French, b. 1975)
Jon Chambers*
Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwanese, b. 1954)
Ian Cheng (American, b. 1984)
Chris Collins (American)
Petra Cortright (American, b. 1986)
Douglas Coupland (Canadian, b. 1961)
Simon Denny (New Zealander, b. 1982)
DIS*
Aleksandra Domanović (Serbian, b. 1981)
Stan Douglas (Canadian, b. 1960)
Constant Dullaart (Dutch, b. 1979)
E. Jane (American, b. 1990)
Lizzie Fitch & Ryan Trecartin (both American, b. 1981)
John Gerrard (Irish, b. 1974)
Goldin+Senneby (Swedish, since 2004)
Óscar González-Díaz*
Matthew Angelo Harrison (American, b. 1989)
Erin Hayden (American, b. 1990)
Porpentine Charity Heartscape*
Mashaun Ali Hendricks*
Femke Herregraven (Dutch, b. 1982)
Shawné Michaelain Holloway*
Joel Holmberg (American, b. 1982)
Juliana Huxtable (American, b. 1987)
Oliver Laric (Austrian, b. 1981)
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (Mexican, b. 1967)
Sara Ludy (American, b. 1980)
Rachel Maclean (British, b. 1987)
Eva and Franco Mattes (both Italian, b. 1976)
Takeshi Murata (American, b. 1974)
Jayson Musson (American, b. 1977)
Mendi + Keith Obadike (both American, b. 1973)
Laura Owens (American, b. 1970)
Trevor Paglen (American, b. 1974)
Heather Phillipson (British, b. 1978)*
Angelo Plessas (Greek, b. 1974)
Jon Rafman (Canadian, b. 1981)
Sean Raspet (American, b. 1981)
Tabita Rezaire (French, b. 1989)
Tabor Robak (American, b. 1986)
Evan Roth (American, b. 1978)
Jacolby Satterwhite (American, b. 1986)
Ben Schumacher (Canadian, b. 1985)
Bogosi Sekhukhuni (South African, b. 1991)
Elias Sime (Ethiopian, b. 1968)
Daniel Steegman Mangrané (Spanish, b. 1977)
Hito Steyerl (German, b. 1966)
Christopher Kulendran Thomas (British, b. 1979) in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann*
Thomson & Craighead (Thomson, British, b. 1969; Craighead, British, b. 1971)
Josh Tonsfeldt (American, b. 1979)
Francis Tseng (American, b. 1988)
Amalia Ulman (Argentinian, b. 1989)
Harm van den Dorpel (Dutch, b. 1981)
Artie Vierkant (American, b. 1986)
Andrew Norman Wilson (American, b. 1983)
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (Korean and American, formed 1999)

* Commissioned work

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Aleksandra Domanović, Alison Schaffer Bloom, Amalia Ulman, Amanda Fraerman, American Artist, Andrew Fraerman, Andrew Norman Wilson, Angelo Plessas, Anna Anthropy, Annika Kuhlmann, Antoine Catala, Artie Vierkant, artsmart: I Was Raised on the Internet, Ben Schumacher, Bogosi Sekhukhuni, Cao Fei, Chicago, Chris Collins, Christina Ochs, Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Constant Dullaart, Cory Arcangel, Craighead, Daniel Schaffer, Daniel Steegman Mangrané, Diana Rdzanek, DIS, Douglas Coupland, E. Jane, Elias Sime, Erin Hayden, Eva and Franco Mattes, Evan Roth, Femke Herregraven, Francis Tseng, Goldin+Senneby, Harm van den Dorpel, Harrison Freund, Heather Phillipson, Hito Steyerl, Ian Cheng, Illinois, Ingrid Burrington, Jack Lubeznik, Jacolby Satterwhite, Jane Seder, Jason Guo, Jayson Musson, Jeremy Bailey, Joel Holmberg, John Gerrard, Jon Chambers, Jon Rafman, Josh Tonsfeldt, JP Liebenson, Juliana Huxtable, Julie White, Juliya Talmacheva, Laura Owens, Lizzie Fitch, Mashaun Ali Hendricks, Matthew Angelo Harrison, McKenzie Thompson, Mendi + Keith Obadike, Michael Stone, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Nate Boyce, Near North Side, Oliver Laric, Oliver Plotkin, Olivia Ifergan, Óscar González Díaz, Petra Cortright, Porpentine Charity Heartscape, Rachel Maclean, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Ryan Trecartin, Sara Ludy, Sean Raspet, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, Shu Lea Cheang, simon denny, Sophia Al-Maria, Stan Douglas, Tabita Rezaire, Tabor Robak, Takeshi Murata, Thomson, Torie Conn, Trevor Paglen, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Zach Blas