The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things

Turner Prize-winner artist Mark Leckey, presents the latest in the Hayward Touring celebrated series of artist-curated exhibitions.The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things explores the tenuous boundaries between the virtual and the real, between the 'dumb' and the animate. As modern technology becomes ever more sophisticated and pervasive, objects appear to communicate with us: phones talk back, refrigerators suggest recipes and websites seem to anticipate our desires.Through a conceptual assemblage of archaeological artifacts, contemporary artworks and visionary machines, Leckey proposes an exemplary network of objects – an 'Internet of Things' – all communicating, talking away to one another and, implicitly, looking back at us.The most imaginative, innovative and authoritative thinkers and writers in this field are brought together in this book – practitioners of art-writing, cultural criticism and the history of technology. Three unique, new texts deal with themes including monstrosity, the power of writing and the boundless power of the Internet.Myth, monstrosity, animism and the articulate are the subjects of this highly original statement on our increasingly technologised world.Published on the occasion of the Hayward Touring exhibition in 2013 to Bluecoat, Liverpool (16 February – 14 April), Nottingham Contemporary (27 April – 30 June), and De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-sea (12 July – 20 October).