Abstract

There is growing recognition of the significance of the 1970 MoMA exhibition organized by Kynaston McShine (1935- ), Information, to broader narratives of Conceptual art and the so-called Information Society. Previous studies have focussed on Information as a symptom of processes of informatization (Meltzer, 2006) as well as the aspirational politics of 1960s counterculture (Allan, 2004) and the heightened visibility of corporate sponsorship (Staniszewski, 1998) within the sanctified space of the museum.
The present study amplifies and revises these findings by singling out for exploration the executive roles performed by three exhibition participants, McShine, IAIN BAXTER& (1936- ) and Lucy Lippard (1937- ). Within the context of the corporate exhibition environment of Information, the supernumerary operations enacted by these figures generated an abrasive inter-play of redundant information by calling attention to and multiplying managerial functions traditionally vested in the curator. I argue that this McLuhanesque logic of decentralized management was adopted in response to the effects of information speed-up and youth culture. As the museum is transformed into the technological newseum or synaesthetic playground envisioned by McLuhan’s associate Harley Parker (1915-1992), the curator drops out and the artist drops in. The non-oppositional, but nonetheless disruptive, logic of these roles charts a parallel, but distinct, course to the more familiar strategy of institutional critique deployed by Hans Haacke (1936- ) within the context of the same show.