Open Codes. Networked Commons

Open Codes. Networked Commons is an exhibition that provides a new way to look at the world we live in today; a world that is shaped by codes. It analyzes the digital infrastructure built and maintained by digital codes. Communication with computers is essential part of our life and we are confronted daily with computer screens and user interfaces. This exhibition, though, is designed to engage with the inherent nature and the creative potentials of computer codes, beneath the surface of the everyday user experience.

Scenes created by artists, who pay attention to programming language and go beyond the smooth display of computers are the focus of the exhibition. The artists use code in various ways according to the respective contexts of their work to explore the interaction between computer codes and languages with new perspectives. It is still commonly believed that humanities scholars and linguists represent one form of culture and computer programmers and engineers another. Moreover, they are thought to be mutually incomprehensible. However, computer codes and languages interact with each other constantly in every aspect of our daily lives. The fact that texts, images, sounds, films, etc., are converted into digital codes and exist as data is a clear representation of these conditions. Nowadays, researchers regard the mediation and negotiation between languages and digital codes as a characteristic of today’s technological society. Their analyses prove that it is necessary to think about languages and digital codes simultaneously and to ceaselessly revise their relational errors.

Furthermore, the pandemic has revealed hidden problems beneath the world’s surface, like digital alienation, social polarization, platform labor, etc. Social distancing has also changed the way of mediating art and sharing knowledge. In this context, Open Codes. Networked Commons is an exhibitionary and also educational experiment towards the possibility of a networked digital commons. At the present moment, when foundations of art and life have moved online to a great extent, this exhibition notes the power of the Internet and manifests its identity as the commons, while evoking a new meaning of movement and meeting. For this purpose, the exhibition space is intended to bring art-making, learning, and discussion together. The audience’s participation here becomes a significant network of the exhibition.

Open Codes was initiated by ZKM | Karlsruhe, and since then adaptations have been organized in India, Spain, and China, which have evolved and expanded with local artists. Nam June Paik Art Center is pleased to join in these worldwide undertakings. The consistent exploration of the commons, carried out over the past few years, now moving into a museum as part of its ecology, continues its close relation with social changes. Open Codes. Networked Commons is a continuation of this effort.

Artists: Insook Bae, Bleeptrack, BNAG, SeungBum Kim, Bernd Lintermann, Christian Lölkes, Martin Nadal & César Escudero Andaluz, Nam June Paik, MeeNa Park, Sebastian Schmieg & Silvio Lorusso, Seoul Express, Cornelia Sollfrank, Unmakelab, Peter Weibel

Curators: Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, Christian Lölkes, and Kim Yoonseo

Hosted and organized by Nam June Paik Art Center, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation.
In collaboration with ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe.
Cooperation Partner: Goethe-Institut Korea
Supported by: rooming, Vitra, XIOM, WOORAN FOUNDATION, Sandoll Cloud

Register for Open Codes: A conversation with curators on July 1 here. 

*Open Codes was conceived and first exhibited at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe based on a concept by Peter Weibel. The adaption Open Codes. Networked Commons is co-produced by NJPAC and ZKM | Karlsruhe.