Nadim Samman

A table of contents on a plain white page. The entries, in a black serif font, are listed vertically: Dark Arts, 6; Black Site, 12; Black Box, 52; Black Hole, 96; and Dark Times, 138.

A page from a book or academic paper. On the left is the title Dark Arts in a large serif font. On the right is a single column of text discussing art, technology, and concepts like encryption and poiesis. The page number 7 is at the bottom right.

A two-page spread from a publication titled Poetics of Encryption. The left page is filled with text. The right page features the iconic Earthrise photograph, showing the blue and white Earth rising over the gray, cratered surface of the Moon against the vast blackness of space, with the caption Earthrise, December 24, 1968.

A two-page spread from a book. The left page, numbered 18, features two images from Jon Rafman's video, You, the World and I. The top image shows a person seen from behind standing on a rocky shore looking at the sea. The bottom image is a dark screenshot of a digital map interface with a message that the image is no longer available. The right page, 19, contains two columns of text, an essay analyzing the artwork.

A two-page spread from a book. The left page, 46, shows a large, cream-colored, heavily textured sculpture, Anthropometry by Juliana Cerqueira Leite, which envelops a metal stepladder. The right page, 47, contains text and two smaller photos: one of the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding and another of the 2017 Charlottesville car attack.

A two-page spread from a book with text on the left page under the heading Coffin. The right page features a large color photograph showing the front section of a jet airliner in a long, deep trench, being buried by a yellow excavator in a barren landscape under a cloudy sky.

An open book showing a two-page spread. The left page contains text under the heading The Black Box. The right page features a large photograph of a monumental, black, geometric sculpture with multiple flat, angular facets. The sculpture stands in a white gallery space on a grey floor. A caption identifies the artwork as anti by Carsten Nicolai from 2004.

A two-page spread from a book. The left page contains a column of text, while the right page features a large, vertical image of an iPhone. The phone's dark screen is entirely covered with greasy, brown finger smudges that create a continuous, wavy, abstract pattern. A caption below identifies the image as the artwork Sweat on Retina by Britta Thie.

A two-page spread from a book about the artist Tilman Hornig. The left page, 72, shows two artworks: a top photo of GlassBook, a transparent glass rectangle on a stand in a gallery, and a bottom photo of GlassPhone, showing two hands holding clear, phone-shaped glass objects. The right page, 73, contains a block of text discussing the artworks. The footer on the left reads Poetics of Encryption, and on the right, Black Box.

A two-page spread from a book, pages 90 and 91, discussing encryption in art. The left page contains dense text. The right page features three photographs related to the art project Treasure of Lima: A Buried Exhibition. The top photo shows an inflatable raft with a white box in choppy water near dark rocks. The two bottom photos show two men in a dark, watery cave carrying the box, and a lush, rocky alcove in a jungle. A caption below identifies the project.

A two-page spread from a publication. The left page, 128, contains a block of text and an image of a classical-style marble bust that is partially digitally reconstructed. The right page, 129, displays a gallery installation with two sculpted heads on pedestals, separated by electronic equipment with screens and wires mounted on the wall.

A two-page spread from a book discussing Nora Al-Badri's AI art project, Babylonian Vision. The left page features text and a grid of AI-generated images of ancient-style pottery, jewelry, and faces. The right page has more text and a large, close-up image of a distorted, gray sculptural face with dark, hollow eyes, generated by an AI.

Nadim Samman

Poetics of Encryption. Art and the Technocene

€ 24.00

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Author: Nadim Samman

April 2023, 160 Pages, 78 Photos

Paperback with Flaps

142mm x 210mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-5265-7

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de

According to Article 9(7) of the GPSR Regulation, no additional security information is required for books without supplements or special functions.

Press download

| An Encounter Between Art and the Technosphere

Proprietary algorithms, secret data troves, and inscrutable systems rule the day. How is this registered in art? In Poetics of Encryption Nadim Samman explores works that highlight the hidden dimensions of our technological landscape. Running counter to erroneous claims regarding a new culture of transparency and openness, such artworks address black sites, black boxes, and black holes—all the while, toggling between enlightened concern and occult dreaming.

NADIM SAMMAN is Curator for the Digital Sphere at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. He read Philosophy at University College London before receiving his PhD from the Courtauld Institute of Art. Widely published, in 2019 he was First Prize recipient of the International Award for Art Criticism (IAAC). Major curatorial projects included the 4th Marrakech Biennale (2012), the 5th Moscow Biennale for Young Art (2015) and the 1st Antarctic Biennale (2017).

EXHIBITION

KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin

February 17-May 26, 2024