Ghosts in the Machine

A sweeping survey on an evergreen subject—the relationship between man and machines. Featuring more than sixty international artists, this volume surveys the constantly shifting relationships between humans, machines, and art. The book spans more than fifty years of history, tracing various movements’ and artists’ engagement with machines—both low- and high-tech—across generations. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue present a transhistorical reassessment of optical, kinetic, and technological art, bringing together a wide range of work from—among others—Bridget Riley, Hans Haacke, Gianni Colombo, Channa Horowitz, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Stan VanDerBeek, and Victor Vasarely. Truly diverse in its scope, the show investigates the ways in which outsider artists, writers, and other cult figures have illustrated the symbiosis between man and machine, including documents and artifacts by J. G. Ballard, Emery Blagdon, Franz Kafka, Marshall McLuhan, Emma Kunz, and Edoardo Paolozzi. A highlight of the exhibition is a reconstruction of Richard Hamilton’s seminal 1955 installation Man Machine Motion. Constructed as a collage of essays, interviews, and manifestos, this publication archives an impressive range of thinking about artists’ fascination with technology.

Massimiliano Gioni is the associate director and director of exhibitions at the New Museum, New York. Gary Carrion-Murayari is an associate curator at the New Museum.