desktop
Haifa Museum of Art | Until 3 January
When we say “My battery’s dead,” “I can’t get a signal,” or “I’m on silent,” we are not talking about our physical bodies being drained, disconnected from the world or out of range, or that we cannot activate our vocal cords. In colloquial language, the speaker is assimilated into technology, reflecting one of the defining features of the 21st century: the disappearing boundaries between the physical and digital realms.
The 33 artists participating in the exhibition “Desktop” come from a wide range of fields, including visual art, photography, design, fashion, animation, illustration, and architecture. Most are in their 30s, and grew up in the digital era. As far as they are concerned, desktop is not a physical surface but a virtual workspace—a concept born some 50 years ago as a ubiquitous term for the digital work environment.
Meanwhile, other once-physical objects, such as a manila folder, a telephone receiver, or a stamp and envelope, began to symbolize digital actions—like making a phone call or sending an email—detaching themselves from their original, tangible context. Over time, the digital age cultivated its own distinct lingo and aesthetics, which gradually seeped back into the physical world, shaping the way we experience it.
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