“Experimental Space”

“Experimental Space,” the current exhibition at Oakland‘s Aggregate Space Gallery (ASG), is a collaboration between the ASG team and BAASICS, the art and science nonprofit organization I co-founded in 2011. Selene Foster and I worked closely with ASG’s Conrad Meyers II and SD Willis to create a show that we hope is at once playful and provocative.

The exhibition was Conrad’s brainchild, and he envisioned a show that would wink at the contemporary art world’s use of the term “experimental space.” In art world jargon, an experimental space is a gallery or other exhibition venue that showcases art projects that are difficult to classify; often, this work is performative and/or conceptual in nature, and it’s almost always ephemeral (i.e., after the show, nothing remains except the “documentation”). Artists, curators, and art writers also refer to these spaces as laboratories.

Conrad thought it would be amusing to display experiments from traditional laboratories in a show called “Experimental Space,” but an inside joke that pillories art world pretensions wasn’t his only angle. He wondered what an exhibition of “amazing and beautiful scientific experiments” at ASG would look like, and how it would resonate with viewers, including himself. In other words, “Experimental Space” would itself be an experiment.

I’d like to think that the “Experimental Space” team created an exhibition that raises questions about the similarities and differences between art and science, subjectivity and objectivity, and the importance of context.

From the show’s press release:

“In their search for evidence of theories that better explain our physical reality, scientists often discover unexpected and beautiful phenomena. The researchers who created the images and videos included in ‘Experimental Space’ did not have an art gallery in mind while they worked. Nevertheless, the images, figures, and data on view are aesthetically compelling and seductive. Through this exhibition, Aggregate Space Gallery and BAASICS bring scientific images and perspectives from the laboratory and the academic journal to the realm of art, where subjectivity trumps objectivity and ambiguity is more celebrated than demystification.”

A hearty thank you goes out to the scientists that contributed work to the exhibition. It really is a lovely show, and your research is the reason why. Also, thanks is due to Laura Cassidy Rogers, who wrote the terrific catalog essay. Finally, a big shout out to KQED Science blog contributor Danna Staff, who attended the recent artist talk that took place in conjunction with the exhibition, and wrote “Bay Area Scientists Artfully Present Their Research in Oakland Exhibit.”

Be sure to check out the show before it closes in early November!