Stefan Eins, publicity photograph for his exhibition Krō-Bär an(d) Pùl-ē, 3 Mercer Street Store, 1974. For Eins, wonder and science were related. In this exhibition, he spotlighted the crowbar and pulley, two ancient inventions that make it easier to move heavy loads.
The beauty of an online gallery featuring art ephemera is that when the inventory is large enough you can create stories about any art topic that you might be interested in. For Gallery 98’s Marc H Miller, a former museum curator, working online with ephemera feels almost carefree since it does not involve the expense and hassle of dealing with real paintings and sculpture. Ephemera is economical in both cost and size, and for those interested is collecting art history, an added plus is that ephemera items often contain factual information that goes beyond what you find in art alone.
With the beginning this week of the 2024-2025 art season, one topic sure to be of interest is the connection between art, science and technology. Artwrld, a new, highly touted podcast will focus exclusively on art and technology; and Art & Science Collide is the title of this year’s regional, multi-museum exhibition series PST sponsored by the Getty Museum. There is, of course, nothing new about this topic, and Gallery 98 has many examples of 20th century art ephemera that explore similar themes. We have here spontaneously selected items from our inventory that show some of the various ways in which art and technology have intermixed. We have also created a special Gallery 98 theme section with a focus on Science and Technology.
Billy Kluver, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)
Book size: 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Billy Kluver (1927 -2004) was an engineer at Bell Laboratories whose interest in art led him to create Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), an organization that fostered the collaboration between artists and scientists. His Pepsi-Cola Pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka Japan featured a building enshrouded by a fog created by artist Fujiko Nakaya; an interior with moving sculptures by Robert Breer; sound by David Tudor; and, reflective mylar covering the walls and ceiling.
Artists Experiment with QWIP (The Original Fax)
Poster size: 11 x 18 inches
Available
The Qwip was an early facsimile transmission machine that was later developed into the FAX. To launch the new invention, Exxon recruited artists in New York and California, and arranged live sessions where they could exchange and exhibit Qwip.
The Story of Chris Burden’s Bicycle Car
Size: 5 x 7.5 inches
Available
Chris Burden’s (1946 – 2015) goal was to create from scratch a one-person car capable of traveling 100 miles per hour with a fuel efficiency of 100 miles per gallon. For the technologically-minded Burden this was both an artist’s fantasy about what a car could be, as well as, a performance piece with a specific time duration.
M. Henry Jones’ Update of the Zoetrope
M. Henry Jones, Go Go Girl, Spinning wheel with strobe light, c.1977
Go Go Girl Frame 63
Available
Artist M. Henry Jones’s (1957 – 2022) experiments with photo animation in an updated version of the 19th century Zoetrope where sequential photos placed on a spinning wheel created the illusion of motion. These pictures were also used for the Nervus Rex music video “Go Go Girl.”
Roger de Montebello, 3D Integram Photographs
Roger de Montebello, Clarinet, 3D Integram Photograph, 1985/86
3D Integram Photograph size: 8 x 10 inches
The Roger de Montebello collection is being sold as a single lot
Working in the pre-digital era, Roger de Montebello (1908 – 1986) devoted forty years striving to create 3D photographs. Gallery 98 has a large collection of drawings and notebooks linked to the design and fabrication of the ChrystalChrome camera, as well as, a few examples of his 3D Integram photographs.
Harold Edgerton’s Stroboscope Freezes Time
Harold Edgerton, Apple and Bullet (1979), Card, Daniel Wolf Gallery, 1982
Card size: 3.75 x 5.5 inches
Available
Harold Edgerton (1903 – 1990) was a professor of electrical engineering at M.I.T. who invented the stroboscope, a high-powered repeating flash that created split-second motion photographs. Although Edgerton’s photos were scientific in origin, they were also embraced by photography collectors like gallery owner Daniel Wolf.
Nam June Paik, Pioneer of Video Art
Card size: 5 x 7 inches (folded) 10 x 7 inches (unfolded)
Available
Video art pioneer Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was among the first to experiment with creatively altering and expanding video technology. His 1984 work Good Morning Mr. Orwell combined live and taped sequences and was presented simultaneously via satellite in Paris and New York.
Nancy Burson, Computer Generated Composite Photographs
Card size: 5 x 7 inches
Available
In the early 1980s, photographer Nancy Burson began working with computer scientists Richard Carling and David Kramlich to create composite portraits. WARHEAD is a “portrait weighted to the number of nuclear warheads deployable by each country: Reagan 55%, Brezhnev “45%, Thatcher (less than 1%), Mitterand (less than 1%), Deng (less than 1%).”
Laurie Anderson, Images Generated from Verbal Description
Card size: 10.5 x 10.5 inches
Available
Technology has always played a large role in Laurie Anderson’s art and performances. In this exhibition from 25 years ago, she experimented with creating computer-generated portraits based on verbal descriptions, a technology that has only now become common with the advent of AI.
