Aram Bartholl — Map and web-physical crossover practice

2006

Artists: Aram Bartholl · Year: 2006 · Medium: Physical-digital-crossover artworks — sculptural objects and public interventions based on internet iconography · Substrate: Physical fabrications of Google Maps place-markers, YouTube play buttons, WiFi signals; public-sculpture installations; Dead Drops USB-drive public-art network · Place: Berlin, Germany · Institution: Independent Aram Bartholl's Map (2006) is a physical fabrication of the Google Maps place-marker icon, scaled up to six meters and installed in actual public spaces where Google Maps had previously placed its algorithmic marker. A physical pushpin, in the real location. Bartholl's broader practice operates in this register consistently: he makes physical versions of digital iconography, placing them back in the spaces where the digital was pointing. His Dead Drops project (2010) installed USB drives cemented into public walls in cities worldwide, creating a decentralized file-sharing network that exists entirely outside internet infrastructure. What Bartholl's practice argues is that digital iconography has become a material culture of its own — that the symbols for "location marker," "play button," "WiFi signal," "battery," are now visual vocabulary with the same cultural weight as older physical-symbol systems. His physical fabrications return these symbols to tangibility and make visible how much of contemporary experience is now mediated through digital iconic shorthand. Bartholl has been based in Berlin throughout his career. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, Ars Electronica, and major European new-media venues. His practice continues, and Dead Drops has expanded to thousands of drives in hundreds of cities since the 2010 launch. He continues to work. Lore Aram Bartholl built the first wood-and-paint Map sculpture by hand at his then-shared studio in Berlin's Mitte district. He was thirty-four and had been a freelance designer working corporate jobs to pay rent while developing his post-internet sculptural practice. His wife, Susanne Schuda, helped fabricate the early sculptures; the couple has continued to share a Berlin studio and have raised two children together. The Map series has continued for nearly twenty years, with sculptures installed in roughly thirty cities across Europe, North America, and Asia. Each installation is locally fabricated by Bartholl or by collaborators following his specifications. He still lives in Berlin and has held a teaching position at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg since 2018. Sources • Bartholl, Aram — datenform.de • MoMA — Bartholl collection • Dead Drops (deaddrops.com)