Dark Data
September 11 - October 30, 2021
Curated by Gee Wesley with curatorial fellows Bianca Dominguez and Mae Miller
American Artist
Hannah Black
Stephanie Dinkins
E. Jane
Mimi Ọnụọha
Sondra Perry
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 11, 2021, 4-8 PM
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Dark Data presents the work of six artists who explore pervasive forms of data collection, mass-surveillance, and hypervisibility visited upon Black life through technologies of predictive policing, data-mining, algorithmic violence, and artificial intelligence. The project situates these emergent data technologies within a broader lineage of anti-Black surveillance and quantification. Dark Data highlights a host of artistic and social tactics exercised by Black practitioners to actively respond to these conditions through experimental archival strategies, inventive modes of technological encryption, and gestures of digital worldmaking.
The term “dark data” refers to information assets that are collected and stored by corporations and governments but which ultimately go unutilized due to constraints of storage or the expiration of the data’s relevance. While temporarily sourced and captured, these vast reserves of information are eventually purged, never to be monetized, analyzed, and assimilated into systems of control and profit. This exhibition explores the continuities between “dark data” and Black data, the latter defined by scholar Shaka McGlotten as the forms of data collection and quantification which, or pertain, to Black bodies, citizens, and consumers for the purposes of commercial profit and social control. Dark Data invites viewers to consider current technological efforts to quantify Black life alongside a broader lineage of Black surveillance and racial capitalism. A trajectory that extends from the middle passage, in which the Black body was quantified as a unit of value, to our contemporary moment, in which the Black consumer is figured alternatively as revenue streams with consumer profiles, vectors of risk in algorithmic systems of control, and data points within predictive policing programs.
This exhibition proposes dark data as both a method for imaging and imagining forms of technological opacity, digital encryption, and online illegibility which challenge the surveillance and hypervisibility of Black life in the United States. As a term, “dark data” conjures the sinister ubiquity of involuntary and sanctioned data collection in contemporary society by corporations, social media, and the state, while also signaling the limits of technological omniscience. This project figures “dark data” as a metaphor for fugitive practices that elude the quantification of Black life. Pointing toward the latent potential of “going dark,” as a practice of digital refusal allowing Black Americans to evade, question, and undermine technologies of capture.
EVENTS
Friday, November 19, 2021, 5-7 PM
Digital World Building: _An Act of Resistance - Presented with PWRPLNT
at EFA Project Space
323 W 39th St, New York, NY, 10018
Exhibition Photography by Yann Chashanovski
Sondra Perry, IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17, 2017. Digital video projection in a room painted Rosco Chroma Key Blue, color, sound (looped) - commissioned by the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo (HOK) and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), University of Pennsylvania for the exhibition Myths of the Marble, 69 × 120 inches (screen),16:20 minutes, courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC. Still courtesy of Bridget Donahue and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
VIDEO: BLACK FINE ARTS MONTH - CURATORIAL TOUR AND WALKTHROUGH OF THE EXHIBITION DARK DATA WITH GEE WESLEY, BIANCA DOMINGUEZ, MAE MILLER (hosted by HC Huỳnh, Director of Special Projects)
MATERIALS
Exhibition Catalog (end_notes #10: Dark Data)
Video: BLACK FINE ARTS MONTH - CURATORIAL TOUR AND alkthrough of the exhibition dark data with gee wesley, bianca dominguez, mae miller.
[Image Description: A dark grey square on a wall reads the gallery information, artists, and curatorial credit. It reads: “Dark Data: September 11 - October 23, 2021, American Artist, Hannah Black, Stephanie Dinkins, E. Jane, Mimi Ọnụọha, Sondra Perry; Curated by Gee Wesley, Curatorial Fellows: Bianca Dominguez.” On the left, there is a glare from a purple light, with white curtains covering the light. On the right, there is a white wall, with a blue opening.]
MIMI ỌNỤỌHA, Natural: or Where Are We Allowed To Be, 2021. Film prints with captions. 36” x 48” (each).
[Image Description: A more zoomed in look at Mimi Ọnụọha’s Natural: or Where Are We Allowed To Be. The subject has a bright blue afro, yellow Lynrd Skynrd sweater, grey skirt, black leggings, blue ankle warmers, and tan sneakers. To the viewer’s right, there are various power cables (shades of blue, grey, and white) through a black cage. Behind them, there are four white control centers, the first of which is next to a black control center. The left photo has them sitting in a white control room, the bottom of the black panel reads, “steward, not subject.” The middle photo has them looking away from an open door of stacked cables, with the bottom of the black panel reading, “places where our information matter more than we do.” The right photo is them looking forward with a camera at a right angle with the same rows of open stacked cables, with the bottom of the black panel reading “it was ours all along.’]
MIMI ỌNỤỌHA, Natural: or Where Are We Allowed To Be, 2021. Film prints with captions. 36” x 48.”
[Image Description: The subject has a bright blue afro, yellow Lynrd Skynrd sweater, grey skirt, black leggings, blue ankle warmers, and tan sneakers. To the viewer’s right, there are various power cables (shades of blue, grey, and white) through a black cage. Behind them, there are four white control centers, the first of which is next to a black control center. The photo has them sitting in a white control room, the bottom of the black panel reads, “steward, not subject.”]
HANNAH BLACK, Shame Mask, 2018. Sculpture moldable plastic, jewelry 18.9 x 14.6 x 9.4 inches.
[Image Description: Hannah Black’s Shame Mask is a skeletal head structure, hangs and with mouth and nose jutting out, similar to a cow.There is a chain hanging from its nostrils and at the bottom of the head. Against a grey/black wall, the shadow of Shame Mask looms on the lower end of the wall.]
E. JANE, You are a light shining (Maxine Waters), 2020. Neon 33 3/4 x 17 inches.
[Image Description: Hannah Black’s Shame Mask is a skeletal head structure, hanging and with mouth and nose jutting out, similar to a cow. There is a chain hanging from its nostrils and at the bottom of the head. Against a grey/black wall, the shadow of Shame Mask looms on the lower end of the wall. To its right, there is a warm purple glow from E. Jane’s You are a light shining (Maxine Waters). The piece hangs against a white wall, and has a white led light against purple with the cursive writing “Maxine.” The glare from a purple light bleeds onto the white curtains covering the light.]
E. JANE, You are a light shining (Maxine Waters), 2020. Neon 33 3/4 x 17 inches.
[Image Description: A straightforward look at E. Jane’s You are a light shining (Maxine Waters). The purple glow is entranced through the entire photo and piece. The piece hangs against a white wall, and has a white led light against purple with the cursive writing “Maxine.” There glare from a purple light bleeds onto the white curtains covering the light.
HANNAH BLACK, Shame Mask, 2018. Sculpture moldable plastic, jewelry 18.9 x 14.6 x 9.4 inches.
[Image Description: Hannah Black’s Shame Mask is a skeletal head structure, hangs and with mouth and nose jutting out, similar to a cow.There is a chain hanging from its nostrils and at the bottom of the head. Against a grey/black wall, the shadow of Shame Mask looms on the lower end of the wall.]
AMERICAN ARTIST, Untitled (Too Thick) III, 2021. Aluminum phone housings, silicone, polyurethane, asphalt, wood, Lightning cable 3 x 6 x 52 inches.
STEPHANIE DINKINS, Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess Us, 2021. Mobile app & website N/A.; A Beautiful African American Woman: Text to Image GAN -- RESULT, 2021. Inkjet print 20 x 20 inches.; A Beautiful Woman: Text to Image GAN -- RESULT, 2021. Inkjet print 20 x 20 inches. A Beautiful Dark Skinned African American Woman: Text to Image GAN -- RESULT, 2021. Inkjet print 20 x 20 inches.
MIMI ỌNỤỌHA, Natural: or Where Are We Allowed To Be, 2021. Film prints with captions. 36” x 48” (each).
HANNAH BLACK, Shame Mask, 2018. Sculpture moldable plastic, jewelry 18.9 x 14.6 x 9.4 inches.
E. JANE, You are a light shining (Maxine Waters), 2020. Neon 33 3/4 x 17 inches.
[Image Description. Facing the opposite side of American Artist’s work, aluminum phone housings are stacked on a white column. There is a more glittery gleam from the stone-shaped structure. A shadow of the structure as well as the cable are more apparent. To its right, there is a warm purple glow from E. Jane’s You are a light shining (Maxine Waters). The piece hangs against a white wall, and has a white led light against purple with the cursive writing “Maxine.” To its left, is Hannah Black’s Shame Mask. This is a skeletal head structure, hanging and with mouth and nose jutting out, similar to a cow. There is a chain hanging from its nostrils and at the bottom of the head. Against a grey/black wall, the shadow of Shame Mask looms on the lower end of the wall. To its left, are two of the three of Mimi Ọnụọha’s Natural: or Where Are We Allowed To Be works. At a distance, we see two photos featuring someone in yellow and white in a control room. The left phone shows the same person facing right as they are standing up with one of the control panels open. To the right, the same person has a different angle with the photo facing to the left. This photo shows a wider angle of the black control room. Stephanie Dinkins’ A Beautiful African American Woman: Text to Image GAN -- Result and Binary Calculations Are Inadequate is to the left of the piece. The three square prints with orange/red/brownish figurines. As one looks closer, a metal shape is the focus in front of a brownish blurry background. The middle image appears to show a blurred figure with a tan animal face, similar to that of a lion within a reddish/green park setting. On the right, there is a bronze ovular figurine against a white background. The right has a raised white column that has a tablet. Diagonally from it, there are two circular round qr codes, one on the bottom appearing orange and the top appearing green.]
STEPHANIE DINKINS, Binary Calculations Are Inadequate to Assess Us, 2021. Mobile app & website N/A.; A Beautiful African American Woman: Text to Image GAN -- RESULT, 2021. Inkjet print 20 x 20 inches.; A Beautiful Woman: Text to Image GAN -- RESULT, 2021. Inkjet print 20 x 20 inches. A Beautiful Dark Skinned African American Woman: Text to Image GAN -- RESULT, 2021. Inkjet print 20 x 20 inches.
[Image Description: A closer, straight-on view of s Stephanie Dinkins’ A Beautiful African American Woman: Text to Image GAN -- Result and Binary Calculations Are Inadequate. The three square prints with orange/red/brownish figurines. As one looks closer, a metal shape is the focus in front of a brownish blurry background. The middle image appears to show a blurred figure with a tan animal face, similar to that of a lion within a reddish/green park setting. On the right, there is a bronze ovular figurine against a light golden background.]
AMERICAN ARTIST, Untitled (Too Thick) III, 2021. Aluminum phone housings, silicone, polyurethane, asphalt, wood, Lightning cable 3 x 6 x 52 inches.
[Image Description: A white column with presumably a metal structure with a larger stone-shaped figure on top.The crater-like asphalt of American Artist’s Untitled (Too Thick) III gleams and sparkles with a multitude of colors.]
AMERICAN ARTIST, Untitled (Too Thick) III, 2021. Aluminum phone housings, silicone, polyurethane, asphalt, wood, Lightning cable 3 x 6 x 52 inches.
[Image Description: The crater-like asphalt of American Artist’s Untitled (Too Thick) III gleams and sparkles with a multitude of colors, with the zoomed in photo showing undertones of bronze and pink. With the photo zoomed in, it is stacked aluminum phone housings.]
SONDRA PERRY, IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17, 2017. Digital video projection in a room painted Rosco Chroma Key Blue, color, sound (looped) 16:20 minutes.
[Image Description: Against blue walls, Sondra Perry’s It’s In the Game’17 shows a video gaming board standing in the background of what appears to be a bedroom. In the upper right corner, a Black person is projected, appearing to be speaking while playing a video game. To its left, there is a black rectangular bench.]
SONDRA PERRY, IT’S IN THE GAME ‘17, 2017. Digital video projection in a room painted Rosco Chroma Key Blue, color, sound (looped) 16:20 minutes.
[Image Description: Against blue walls, Sondra Perry’s It’s In the Game’17 shows four humans facing each other as skeletal muscles, similar to a biology map. They are standing on what appears to be a blue cyber floor with many lines or lasers.]