"DESKTOP METAPHOR"
An Exhibition By Mateo Zlatar

February 6 - March 20, 2004

Opening Reception: Friday, Feb 6, 7PM - 9PM

Artist's talk: Saturday, February 28, 2004, 3PM
Una Charla en español con el artista: Sábado, 13 de marzo, a las 3 de la tarde

MediaNoche,the new Uptown gallery devoted to new media, presents Mateo Zlatar's "Desktop Metaphor".

The piece is a visual narrative that takes place in the operating system of a fictional computer, where different pieces of software are launched and quit by an omniscient user, portraying several pieces of software that fulfill emotional, aesthetical and metaphysical goals, reaching beyond the traditional productivity-oriented software’s intentions.

The installation comprises two large-scale projections of computer "desktops", where fictional software splash pages display names, corporate brands and a diverse array of purposes that transforms the computer desktop in a "mirror of the mind", revealing the user’s hopes, dreams and frustrations (in this case the artist).

As the artist explains, "nowadays the paradigm of the "desktop" as a way to understand the virtual space of the computer has overcome the metaphor itself, because is not longer a formal reference to real life but our actual way to communicate, organize and live our lives." "I am interested in revealing how the computer memory has become an essential extension of our own memories and thoughts, becoming an authentic mirror of the mind".

In the process of this work, which the artist originally started as interventions to real pieces of software, he envisioned a cybernetic scenario in which ordinary people may connect their brains to the machine and simply download/upload memories and hopes, dreams and frustrations to the binary system, expecting feedback and the "inevitable rearrangement of our thoughts". What if we can do that? What tasks may we want the computer to do with us, for us, on us? That’s the play of this work, which in this approach is not exempt of poetry, magic, irony or criticism.

Mateo Zlatar is an artist and designer living and working in New York City.