Above: Greg Niemeyer and Roger Antonsen, Networks Forming, 2018. Pigment print.
Greg Niemeyer and Roger Antonsen | The Network Paradox
with Mullowney Printing
in concert with QUANTOPIA: The Evolution of the Internet by Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky
January 12 – February 16, 2019
San Francisco, CA: Catharine Clark Gallery opens its 2019 program with The Network Paradox, a collaborative project by artist Greg Niemeyer and
computer scientist and artist Roger Antonsen, with Mullowney Printing, San Francisco. Realized in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Internet, The
Network Paradox depicts “an animated view of the evolution of the Internet from 1969 to 2019,” as Niemeyer describes, while inviting meditation on how we
form communities through technologies.
The centerpiece of Niemeyer’s exhibition is an 18-foot long gravure scroll printed from 26 plates, published by Mullowney Printing with assistance from
graduate printmaking students at Pacific Northwest College of the Arts. The monumentally-scaled work on paper draws inspiration from the Daoist
hexagrams of the I Ching, the historical divination text that dates to China’s Western Zhou period (1000 – 750 BC). The 64 hexagrams in the I Ching are
composed through sequences of straight and broken lines that form unique compositions, representing different elements that are essential to Daoist
philosophy, and that find a visual parallel in Niemeyer’s rendering of the net. In identifying these symbolic constructions as an early form of code, Niemeyer
and Antonsen created a graphic composition that imagines an expanded history of the Internet and its evolution through the technological advancements of
the Cold War (1946 – 1991), the first dot-com wave, the rise of big data, and the influence of artificial intelligence, among other sources and events.
Catharine Clark Gallery 248 Utah Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 TEL 415.399.1439 www.cclarkgallery.com 2
Above: Greg Niemeyer and Master Printer Paul Mullowney at work on the The Network Paradox scroll at Pacific Northwest College of the Arts, 2018.
The scroll offers viewers a data visualization in analogue form; and through the unexpected use of the 19th century process of gravure etching, The Network
Paradox encourages viewers to consider how, throughout time, technology continuously offers us tools for finding meaning and connection through visual
storytelling. The graphic shapes and lines in Niemeyer’s and Antonsen’s composition also evoke the logograms of non-Western writing systems, such as
hieroglyphics or cuneiform, that use images and symbols to convey narrative. Niemeyer writes, the scroll itself encourages interpretation and debate, noting
that “the mystery of the scroll lies in the tension between a bold, iconic rendering of turning points in the history of the Internet layered with billowing
clouds of network formations” that could alternatively represent “the desires which drive technological development, the drama of total quantification, or the
energies of generational change.” In rendering this history of the Internet, Niemeyer and Antonsen eschew any one totalizing narrative, and instead opts for
broader, more generous visual poetics, where viewers can consider “the way we form communities” that define our futures.
In Gallery II, the scroll is presented as a solo project by Niemeyer and Antonsen, printed by Paul Mullowney and his team. In Gallery I, Niemeyer and
Antonsen present a contextual installation of works which led to the scroll. The installation includes preparatory studies, storyboards, generative art by
Antonsen and Niemeyer, an interactive digital network drawing tool, and a sculpture representing the network. On view in the gallery’s Media Room is
another interactive, immersive installation experienced through VR created by Niemeyer and Medium Labs. The VR work visualizes the network as nodes
that are the scaffolding of internet connections, and their project allows the viewer to touch and operate within their 3-D representation of networks.
Contributors to The Network Paradox include Paul Mullowney, Harry Schneider, Erin McAdams, Max Valentine, Wendy Liu, MEDIUM Labs (Boulder, CO),
Leilah Talukder, Oliver Moldow, Brian Lo, and Lisa Esters.
Catharine Clark Gallery 248 Utah Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 TEL 415.399.1439 www.cclarkgallery.com
On Friday, January 25, 2019, in conjunction with The Network Paradox, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts premieres QUANTOPIA: The Evolution of the
Internet, a multimedia performance work by Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, with Niemeyer, Antonsen and MEDIUM Lab’s involvement in the visual
design. QUANTOPIA is commissioned by Internet Archive; a Hewlett 50 Arts Commission funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Presented in
association with YBCA. Produced by Sozo Artists, Inc. with additional support from Sozo Impact, Inc.
A panel discussion titled “Net, Web, Cloud, Fog” will be held at the gallery on Saturday, January 26, 2019, from 4 – 6 PM, featuring speakers Brewster
Kahle, Paul D. Miller, Roger Antonsen, Tung-Hui Hu, An Xiao Mina, and Greg Niemeyer. Join us for an opening for The Network Paradox with artist talks
by Niemeyer and Antonsen on Saturday, January 12, 2019 from 3 – 5pm; talk at 4pm.
Above: Greg Niemeyer and Roger Antonsen, Network Polarization, 2018. Pigment print.
Greg Niemeyer and Roger Antonsen | The Network Paradox
with Mullowney Printing
Catharine Clark Gallery
January 12 – February 16, 2019
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 12, 2019, 3 – 5pm; talk at 4pm
Related programming:
QUANTOPIA: The Evolution of the Internet
Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky
Visual Design by Greg Niemeyer, MEDIUM Labs and Roger Antonsen
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
January 25, 2019 | 7:30pm
Tickets: $25
https://www.ybca.org/whats-on/quantopia
Panel discussion: “Net, Web, Cloud, Fog”
with speakers Brewster Kahle, Paul D. Miller, Roger Antonsen,
Tung-Hui Hu, An Xiao Mina and Greg Niemeyer
Catharine Clark Gallery
January 26, 2019 | 4 – 6pm
https://www.gregniemeyer.com/happenings/2019/1/26/net-web-
cloud-fog
Lecture: Greg Niemeyer | Artist Talk on The Network Paradox
Green Music Center, Sonoma State University
February 7, 2019 | 11:55am – 1pm
https://www.gregniemeyer.com/happenings/2018/12/24/the-
network-paradox
Lecture: Greg Niemeyer | A BELL A CORE A NODE
San Jose State University
February 7, 2019 | 5 – 6pm
https://www.gregniemeyer.com/happenings/2019/2/7/a-bell-a-
core-a-node
Catharine Clark Gallery 248 Utah Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 TEL 415.399.1439 www.cclarkgallery.com 4
Above: Detail of Lenka Clayton, Animal Photographed by an East German Spy, from “Typewriter Drawings” series, 2018.
Featured in the artist’s solo presentation at Catharine Clark Gallery in April 2019.
Upcoming Events and Exhibitions:
Panel discussion: Terri Cohn and Farley Gwazda - representing the estate of Sonya Rapoport - and Greg Niemeyer
February 6, 2019 | 5:30 - 7pm
In the spirit of Niemeyer and Antonsen’s animated view of the evolution of the internet and the idea that the exhibit invites meditation on how we form communities through
technology, the gallery presents Terri Cohn and Farley Gwazda—representing the estate of Sonya Rapoport (www.sonyarapoport.org) who in 1970 began working on computer
print outs using a personal language pattern—and Greg Niemeyer in conversation.
Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth Hope | An Inexhaustive Study of Power
Media Room: Lenka Clayton, People In Order - Home
February 23 – March 30, 2019
Lenka Clayton | Solo Presentation
April 6 – May 11, 2019
Media inquiries contact Anton Stuebner | [email protected] | Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday from 10:30am – 5:30pm| Saturday from 11am - 6pm
Catharine Clark Gallery 248 Utah Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 TEL 415.399.1439 www.cclarkgallery.com 5
HISTORIES, BIOGRAPHIES AND LINKS
Greg Niemeyer: https://www.gregniemeyer.com
Greg Niemeyer is a data artist who seeks to represent the human element in the database.
Born in Switzerland in 1967, Niemeyer studied classics and photography before arriving in the SF Bay Area in 1992, where he has lived and worked since. In 1997, he received his MFA from
Stanford University in New Media, and simultaneously founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center. Since 2001, Niemeyer has been a professor of New Media at UC Berkeley in the
Department of Art Practice.
Niemeyer’s work has been exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Cooper Union, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Jose Museum of Art, Zentrum fur Kunst
und Medien (Karlsruhe), and at many international arts biennials including La Villette Numerique (Paris), National Art Museum of China (Beijing); Centro de Cultura Digital (Mexico City),
and the Venice Biennale in 2013 (Maldives Pavilion). His work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and the Intel Technology
Innovation Grants.
The Network Paradox is his first major gallery-based project. Collaboration is central to Niemeyer’s’ practice. He has previously worked with Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky). For QUANTOPIA he
collaborated with Roger Antonsen and MEDIUM Labs to realize the visual design for the performance work. The Network Paradox scroll and attendant collaborative installations and projects
(with Roger Antonsen) offer a permanent reckoning with the impact of information technology on the way communities form.
Roger Antonsen: https://rantonse.no
Roger Antonsen is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo in Norway, and Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, California. With a PhD
in mathematical logic and proof theory, and the author of the book Logical Methods: The Art of Thinking Abstractly and Mathematically, he is considered a logician, mathematician, computer
scientist, public speaker, author, and artist. Through his numerous projects, he creatively combines mathematics and computer science with entertainment, philosophy, and engaging
visualizations. He received the Best of Show Award for 2-D Art Work at the Bridges Stockholm 2018, an annual conference on mathematics and art. Antonsen is also an award-winning
science communicator, whose 2015 TED talk, “Math is the hidden secret to understanding the world”, is one of the most popular TED talks on mathematics.
The Network Paradox is also Antonsen’s first major gallery-based project. For The Network Paradox, Antonsen has collaborated with Greg Niemeyer on realizing several aspects of the gallery
installation, and with DJ Spooky on the visual design of QUANTOPIA.
Catharine Clark Gallery and Mullowney Printing https://www.cclarkgallery.com/exhibitions/upcoming and http://www.mullowneyprinting.com/
Named after his grandfather's commercial print studio founded in the early 1900's in Minneapolis, Mullowney Printing was founded by Paul Mullowney in San Francisco, California in 2011.
Prior to opening Mullowney Printing, Paul Mullowney trained to be a Master Printer at Crown Point Press in San Francisco. He later founded and managed studios in Ouda, Japan and on
Maui, Hawaii. Mullowney teaches at Pacific Northwest College of Art and the San Francisco Art Institute, and has delivered numerous printmaking workshops in the United States and Japan.
Clark and Mullowney began their collaborative relationship with the release of Sandow Birk's “Ten Leading Causes of Death in America” (2004), a suite of chine-collé, direct gravure
etchings. Between 2006-2007, Paul Mullowney, while working as the Master Printer at the Hui No'eau Visual Arts Center on Maui, Hawaii, published Sandow Birk's "Depravities of War". In
2011, Mullowney and Clark began co-publishing Birk's "Imaginary Monuments", a project that will ultimately comprise ten gravures. In addition to working with Birk and Elyse Pignolet,
Mullowney has printed with other artists represented by Catharine Clark Gallery including Josephine Taylor and Masami Teraoka. Mullowney has also worked extensively with Don Ed Hardy
and Alison Saar. Mullowney and Greg Niemeyer began realizing The Network Paradox as an engraved scroll in the summer of 2018.
MEDIUM Labs: https://www.instagram.com/mediumlabs/?hl=en
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky: http://www.djspooky.com/
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: QUANTOPIA: The Evolution of the Internet https://www.ybca.org/whats-on/quantopia
QUANTOPIA is commissioned by Internet Archive; a Hewlett 50 Arts Commission funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Presented in association with YBCA. Produced
by Sozo Artists, Inc. with additional support from Sozo Impact, Inc.