Curating’s Technological Unconscious: The History of Cybernetics and the Gaian Transformation of Curation

In his essay Curating’s Technological Unconscious: The History of Cybernetics and the Gaian Transformation of Curation, Adeena Mey examines what he and philosopher Yuk Hui have termed the “cybernetization of the exhibition.” This phrase describes the historical transformation of the exhibition and institution into informational and communicational media. The process is closely tied to the writings and institutional experiments in the 1970s of figures such as curators Peter Althaus, Jorge Glusberg, and Pontus Hultén, and philosophers like Vilém Flusser. Interestingly, the 1970s also marked the emergence of a distinction between “first-order cybernetics”— which views living and technological beings as regulated by “feedback” processes—and “second-order cybernetics”—which sees systems as self-organizing and self-reflective. The former largely inspired these curatorial and theoretical attempts to transform museums and the form of exhibitions. The essay elaborates on the difference between first- and second-order cybernetics. It posits that we can attribute the prevalent curatorial logic to first-order cybernetics, while the recent and evolving changes in the exhibitionary complex might be related to the second order. Second-order cybernetics provides us with the tools necessary to reconsider the role of biennales in the Anthropocene. These tools can aid in addressing what philosopher Isabelle Stengers terms the “Intrusion of Gaia” (the activation of planetary and environmental forces that surpass human control). Mey suggests that, to effectively address the current intersection of environmental, political, and scientific urgencies, we need to rethink institutions and curating through the lens of second-order cybernetics, viewing them as self-organizing systems.