Hexen 2.0 / Macy Conferences Attendees

At the exhibition from October 20, 2017 to August 5, 2018

A grid of faces, names, and written information constitutes Suzanne Treister’s work »Macy Conferences Attendees« from her series »Hexen 2.0«, which analyzes the crossovers between »hard« sciences like engineering, computing, or mathematics, and the »soft« disciplines of the social sciences, through the development of cybernetics, »the science of control and communication in the animal and the machine« (Norbert Wiener).

The Macy Conferences (1946–1953) took place in the aftermath of World War II and assembled an interdisciplinary group of researchers who were responsible for developing and disseminating of the idea of cybernetics. Looking simultaneously at different scientific disciplines and elaborating their findings within a framework of US governmental and military imperatives, the attendees of the Macy Conferences drew up a future scenario based on sweeping social control as a model for controlling the world.

In essence, Treister's approach to this series of significant meetings and events evaluates and presents a powerful period in the recent history of technology, offering the audience a deeper understanding of the interrelationships between science and culture, between science and the military, between science and politics.

Courtesy of Anny Juda Fine Art, London