Social Synthetic

Published by Koenig Books
Edited with text by Beatrix Ruf, Achim Hochdörfer. Coedited by Eric Banks. Contributions by Cory Arcangel, Ed Halter, Branden W. Joseph, John Kelsey, Michelle Kuo, Rachel Kushner, et al.

Social Synthetic is the first comprehensive publication on the varied oeuvre of Seth Price (born 1973).

How can art explore the self under technological pressure? In Price’s work, this is often expressed in terms of the “skins” of surface, packaging and wrapping: he has made photographic studies of a person’s skin obtained through the technologies Google employs for mapping, vacuum-formed plastic reliefs presenting a body part stranded in plastic and large wall sculptures depicting the negative space between two people engaged in intimate action, greatly enlarged from a tiny internet jpeg. Price’s work offers a fascinating engagement with our technologically mediated lives; these issues are tackled in this volume by a veritable who’s-who of artists and writers working on similar themes, including Cory Arcangel, Ed Halter, Branden Joseph, John Kelsey, Michelle Kuo, Rachel Kushner, Laura Owens and Ariana Reines.