Augmented / Obstructed playfully intertwines the physical with the digital, resulting in a reactivated card catalogue room that is enhanced through the medium of machine vision. Artists Andy Deck and Carol Padberg explore the nuances of augmented reality in their first ever
collaboration. Incomprehensible to the human gaze, but perceptible with the assistance of software, the designs of commerce and culture combine in the form of reinvented card catalogue labels, altered books, and ancient Babylonian clay tablets. Referencing a library collection rich in the history of language and inscription, the work invites viewers to consider the consequences of our cultural journey from clay tablets and the printing press to digital tablets and the Internet. Using a poetic and yet industrialized visual language, the artists probe questions of intellectual property, authorship,
the public domain, and access to knowledge.
Augmented or obstructed? It’s not all in the
eye of the beholder.
