The exhibition, "Database Imaginary" was co-organized by The Walter Phillips Gallery of the Banff Centre and the Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina in 2004 (and toured to venues in Toronto and Montreal in 2005). It was co-curated by Steve Dietz, Sarah Cook, and Anthony Kiendl. The show included computer and non-computer based projects dating back to Hans Haacke's "Visitor Survey" (1972) and Muntadas' "The File Room" (1994) and sought to explore how the organization of information has been a critical point of emphasis within the popular imagination since the rise of computing in the early 1970s. As theorist Lev Manovich has suggested, if other iconic forms of the Twentieth century can have their own aesthetics, such as the car or the skyscraper, then why not the database? The work of 33 artists who both imagine the world through the use of databases, and question how databases are used in the world, was featured, including Natalie Bookchin, Heath Bunting and Kayle Brandon, Alan Currall, Lisa Jevbratt, Edward Poitras, and Thomson & Craighead.

http://databaseimaginary.banff.org

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