Singer notes

The mfc-michèle didier gallery in Paris shows Mel Bochner’s notes and drawings, taken from the conversations he held with scientists and engineers at the Singer Laboratories.

Mel Bochner, Singer Notes, 1968, 1968-2017
Singer Notes is an important work by American artist Mel Bochner yet strangely it remains little-known. In 1968, Bochner replied to an open call organised by the already renowned Experiments in Art and Technology program (E.A.T.), launched by the engineers Billy Klüver and Fred Waldhauer and artists Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Whitman. Bochner was selected to partake in a residency at the Singer Laboratories in New Jersey. Between September and December 1968, he was to visit the labs three times a week. The Singer Notes are made up of notes and drawings which resulted from the conversations he held with scientists and engineers there.

 

The Singer Notes tackle several themes: how do scientists translate their research into more concrete applications? how do they design experiments? the nature of colour as a type of energy; the fundamental differences between the analog and the digital; how do scientists (and in a broader sense, people) know what they know? In the first room of the gallery, a facsimile of the original Singer Notes binder will be placed upon a pedestal, thus harking back to Bochner’s display of his historical 1966 piece entitled Working Drawings And Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed as Art. In the second room, the artist will install Measurement Perimeter, this first Measurement Room, which has never been exhibited. A major work, which can be seen as the culmination of the experiments and research undertaken at Singer Labs.

Img.5 Mel Bochner, Singer Notes, 1968, 1968 – 2017
Img.5 Mel Bochner, Singer Notes, 1968, 1968-2017

8 September – 10 November 2017
Mel Bochner. Singer Notes
curated by Sébastien Pluot
mfc-michèle didier
66 rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth, Paris

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