UniAddDumThs “MACHINE”

Mark Leckey’s large-scale installation offers an unusual perspective on the history of technology. In 2013, the British artist was invited to curate an exhibition. Along the lines of the terms “man,” “machine,” and “animal,” Leckey selected artworks and objects with references to technology, popular culture, and human history. He presented them side by side in large displays. Thus, objects (including the technological imaginary) from different eras and contexts intersected. At the end of the exhibition, Leckey decided to preserve the objects for himself by creating (authorized) copies and reproductions with the help of analog and digital means such as 3D prints, photographs, and even cardboard standees. This is how “UniAddDumThs” came into being. The starting point for Leckey’s selection was the observation that technology has changed our relationship to things. After all, our highly digitalized environment is increasingly populated by “animated” and “networked” objects: computers talk to us, our refrigerator knows what we like to eat. The belief in the inherent life of supposedly “dumb things” is becoming ever more normal. This links our technologized world with the animistic thinking of premodern times when objects were perceived as alive or even possessing a soul.

Hey Buddy, look at this for a wacky collection of strange objects! I wonder what Mark was thinking here? Did you know that he spent years collecting images of various objects on the internet? He was looking for representations of “human,” “animal,” and “machine.” This resulted in a huge collection of hundreds of images. But for an exhibition, Mark really wanted to show the objects themselves and not merely pictures of them. To this end, he borrowed countless very different items—from religious objects of different cultures to a space suit for a dog. After the exhibition was over, he had to return them, so he took photographs and made cardboard displays and 3-D prints of them beforehand. He combined these copies repeatedly in three rooms. In the process, Mark found that there is always something magical in images of people, animals and machines, and some of the things also seem to have a life of their own. Listen carefully: quite a few make noises or even move!