Beginning in 1975, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz developed a body of work that today stands unparalleled in its scope and vision for art in a networked age. This richly illustrated book by the late author Gene Youngblood – his first since the publication of the iconic Expanded Cinema (1970) – will make this landmark work more widely available to audiences today.
The book’s primary aim will be to highlight the artists’ exploration of the idea that the internet could create an “informal, multi-media, multi-cultural, conversational” society. Their vision wasn’t merely a powerful and unrealized promise; it was actually put into practice in the duo’s key works, particularly iconic artworks such as Satellite Arts (1977), Hole in Space (1980), and Electronic Cafe (1984). The book does this by telling the story of the artists’ careers, showing the development of their thinking and practice as they created powerful models for a more democratic networked society. Youngblood has conducted dozens and dozens of interviews with Galloway, Rabinowitz, and their collaborators over three decades, and the book will bring their unique milieu to life.
The book will be accompanied by a new website featuring a wide selection of material from the Galloway & Rabinowitz Archives, much of it newly digitized as part of the research for this book.