Spool III

Spool III deconstructs items from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s online collection into rows of pixels. By breaking these images apart, the work evokes how the digital realms dematerializes art. A custom-made algorithm continuously pulls in pieces from the collection, breaking them apart and mixing them into a flowing stream of images. Different works, periods, and styles overlap and disappear within the piece.

When pieces are scanned, compressed and circulated online, they lose their physical qualities, such as their texture, materiality, and spatial presence. They become flattened into images that can be endlessly reproduced and consumed, received by viewers as bidimensional renditions that become part of an endless flow of information. Considering this visual experience, Spool III’s animation slides along the curving surface of the artwork’s sculptural screen, evoking an endless feed with constantly refreshed contents.

Echoing André Malraux’s concept of the “Musée Imaginaire”, Spool III activates a museum of replicas, where slivers of artwork of different styles and ages circulate freely, reflecting our current tendency to mix and match fragments of artistic content.