Michael Mandiberg Artist Talk

The Great Recession

In conjunction with his exhibition, The Great Recession, Michael Mandiberg will give lecture on the works on views as well as his other projects.

Michael Mandiberg is an artist, programmer, designer and educator. His work varies from web
applications about environmental impact to conceptual performances about subjectivity, to sculptures
made from laser cut reference books.
His recent projects include Security Patterns, a series
of laser burned drawings and found reference books
laser cut with poetic epigrams, HowMuchItCosts.us, a
car direction site that incorporates the financial and
carbon cost of driving, and the groundbreaking
textbook Digital Foundations: an Intro to Media
Design that teaches formal principles through design
software. Recent projects include The Real Costs, a
browser plug-in that inserts carbon footprints into
airplane travel & car directions websites, and Oil
Standard, a browser plug-in that converts all prices
on any web page in their equivalent value in barrels
of oil.
He is well known for his year long performance and e-commerce website Shop Mandiberg, which
marketed and sold all of his possessions, and for AfterSherrieLevine.com, where he made available hi-
resolution scans of the Walker Evans images rephotographed by Sherrie Levine, complete with
certificates of authenticity to be signed by the user themselves. The Essential Guide to Performing
Michael Mandiberg, an extensive DIY guide prepared for a life art performance was included by the
Electronic Literature Organization as one of the foundational works of electronic literature to be included
in the Library of Congress. From 2001 to 2006 he edited the Calls and Opps list, the most popular email
list for calls for work and artist opportunities.
He is a founding member of Eyebeam’s Sustainability Research Group. Through this forum he has
spearheaded collaborations such as the Eco-Vis Design Challenge, and the critically praised Feedback
exhibition. He created the retroreflective Bright Bike that Treehugger.com called “obnoxiously bright.”
Working with fellow research group member Steve Lambert, he created the Bright Idea Shade, a Creative
Commons licensed flat-pack laser cut lampshade for bare CFL lightbulbs.
His work has been exhibited at such venues as the New Museum for Contemporary Art in New York City,
Ars Electronica Center in Linz, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, and Transmediale Festival, Berlin. His work
has been featured in such books as Tribe and Janaʼs New Media Art, Blais and Ippolitoʼs At the Edge of
Art, and Greeneʼs Internet Art. He is a recipient of grants, residencies, and fellowships from Eyebeam,
Rhizome.org, Turbulence.org/Jerome Foundation, The Banff Centre, and the City University of New York.
An Assistant Professor of Design and Digital Media at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, he is currently
an Senior Fellow at Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology. Raised in Portland, Oregon, he rides his
bicycle around his adopted home of Brooklyn.

Ticket info: Free & Open to the Public.