FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | February 2, 2002

NIGHT VISION

an exhibition curated by Joy Garnett

participating artists:

Jordan Crandall | Christoph Draeger | Joy Garnett |

Adam Hurwitz | Bill Jones + Ben Neill | John Klima |

Joseph Nechvatal | Jonathan Podwil | Radical Software Group

online at:

http://firstpulseprojects.net/NightVisionIndex.html

opens February 26, 2002:

University Galleries

Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois

February 26 - April 3, 2002

travels to:

White Columns, New York City

June 14 - July 21, 2002

g-module, Paris, France

April/May 2003

NIGHT VISION takes it's title from the high-tech optical apparatus used in nocturnal military operations, whose green glow has become increasingly familiar since CNN's televised transmission of the Persian Gulf War one decade ago. The strategic advantage afforded by technologies that can penetrate the night provides the central metaphor for this exhibition. "Metaphors infiltrate real living," states the catalogue text; likewise, the works in NIGHT VISION may shift some light toward the murky implications surrounding this theme.

"The camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses," wrote Walter Benjamin in a famous analysis. In NIGHT VISION, the symbolic lens refers to actual technologies co-opted by the artists experimentally, as well as documentary sources or subjects used for reflection and analysis.

NIGHT VISION showcases work by artists and art collaboratives based in New York and in Brooklyn. Employing a variety of media, these artists are deeply influenced by ongoing developments in technology: the science of optics in the service of both military and social objectives, and networks as extensions of intelligence and creativity, or as portals for infiltration, surveillance and infection.

CATALOGUE AVAILABLE

A full-color 16-page catalogue with an essay by Tim Griffin accompanies the exhibition. Published by First Pulse Projects, Inc., New York, it is now available on Amazon.com, as well as in the galleries, and directly from the publisher: For information contact: catalogue@firstpulseprojects.org

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Griffin is an art critic, curator, poet and writer. He is the current Art Editor of Time Out New York, and former editor of ArtByte: The Magazine of Digital Culture. He most recently curated the group exhibition "Compression" at Feigen Contemporary, New York, an exhibition of contemporary works dealing with new formal treatments of space. He co-curated the exhibition "The Production of Production" at Apex Art, NYC. Mr. Griffin has written extensively on new media art and culture, and his articles have appeared in various journals including Art in America and art/text. His poetry has appeared in PURPLE, LINGO, EXPLOSIVE, KIOSK, and in HAT & FENCE. His book Contamination, produced by Peter Halley, is forthcoming from Gabrius in May, 2002; July In Stereo appears this summer from Shark Press.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Joy Garnett is an artist and co-founder of First Pulse Projects, Inc., an art/science publishing collaborative: http://www.firstpulseprojects.org . She lives in New York City.

Works by NIGHT VISION artists appear by courtesy of their galleries as follows:

Jordan Crandall courtesy Henry Urbach Architecture, NYC

Christoph Draeger courtesy Roebling Hall, Brooklyn, NY

Joy Garnett courtesy Debs & Co., NYC

Bill Jones + Ben Neill courtesy Sandra Gering Gallery, NYC

John Klima courtesy Postmasters Gallery, NYC

Joseph Nechvatal courtesy Julia Friedman Gallery, Chicago, and Universal Concepts Unlimited, NYC

SPECIAL THANKS to University Galleries (Illinois State U.), White Columns, g-module, Debs & Co., Roebling Hall, and Julia Friedman Gallery.