"To take something that exists in the digital world, photograph it and print it, is an echo of the photo collage technique, the construction of an image. What lies behind that is the ability now to actually visit that structure in space." We sit down with James Bridle at his studio at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York City to discuss 'Continuous Monument: Manhattan', his work based on Superstudio's series of theoretical drawings from the late 1960s called The Continuous Monument. A print and digital file in Google Earth are included in our upcoming Paddles ON! auction.
Provenance
Courtesy of the artist
Catalogue Essay
Beginning in 1969, Superstudio, an Italian design and architecture collective, published a series of theoretical drawings called The Continuous Monument – a structure they envisioned as a single piece of architecture that would span the entire world, unifying continents and cultures. Although Superstudio conceived of this series as a physical entity, its closest expression today is found in our digital infrastructure, which is vast, global, and yet almost entirely invisible. As a tribute to their vision, James Bridle recreates The Continuous Monument inside Google Earth, allowing the viewer to explore and virtually inhabit these fantastic spaces.
