On April 28, 2013, Swiss Institute hosted a performance entitled “Introducing the Web,” which I scripted along with artist Jon Kessler and novelist Joshua Cohen. The performance was produced in conjunction with Kessler’s exhibition “The Web,” and took the form of a press conference announcing the public release of the eponymous picture-sharing app made by Kessler and his team. Neal Bledsoe, the CFO of Kessler’s putative company GlblVlgIdiot praised and made great techno-utopian promises for this app, and the Global Village Idiot himself made an appearance, accompanied by his band of juvenile, touchscreen-swiping acolytes, The Idiots.
As Bledsoe put it: “Primitive social network connections have been static, fixed, closed; The Web is kinetic, transitive, open. The Web is your portal to open. It takes you from social networking to social inhabitation—you’re not just messaging someone about the Jon Kessler show at Swiss Institute; you are yourself and that person; you are Swiss Institute; you are the installation. With The Web, MySpace is YourSpace, Facebook is Bodybook, Foursquare is Fourcubed. Think of it as 4D printing—printing in time. Imprinting. I’m printing. And you know what that means? We’re going off-screen. No interface means no surface, and no surface means all depth.”
Below is the press release announcing the performance and select documentation, including an edited video. Covertly recorded audio is available here.
___
Swiss Institute is pleased to present a special press conference and performance to mark the close of Jon Kessler’s exhibition “The Web.”
The press conference will announce the launch of Kessler’s new business enterprise, GlblVlgIdiot, devoted to the creation of iPhone applications—such as The Web, which powers the eponymous exhibition—that bridge the gap between art and life.
The Global Village Idiot, the visionary maverick who has inspired so many disruptions at the intersection of art and technology, will make a rare public appearance to consecrate Kessler’s endeavor.
GlblVlgIdiot’s Chief Technology Officer will reveal the company’s plans to build on the success of The Web, which was recently sold for $2.5 million to a Manhattan-based startup widely recognized for its algorithmic approach to organizing, experiencing, and buying art.
The press conference at Swiss Institute is developed in collaboration with Alexander Provan, a prominent theorist of apps and the editor of Triple Canopy, and in consultation with Joshua Cohen, the novelist and Internet expert. Both Provan and Cohen have been retained by GlblVlgIdiot as advisors.
Seating is limited.
Please RSVP by April 26:
rsvp@swissinstitute.net
