panels for the walls of the world(re-staging), 1967/2008
16mm film transfers, video projection, slide projection
image © designboom


stan vaderbeek (b.1927, d. 1984 new york city, U.S.A.) was once a major figure of the new york avant-
garde, associating with luminaries like claes oldenburg, jim dine, robert morris, allan kaprow, and yvonne
rainer. the subject of a retrospective at anthology film archives in 1977, vanderbeek worked as an artist-in-
residence at NASA and at MIT, and exhibited at major museums and international art events. after his death
in 1984 at the age of 57, his work was largely forgotten, but thanks to recent efforts by artists and his family,
vanderbeek is again becoming more widely known.

initially recognized for his experimental animation work, vanderbeek developed a fascination with technology
later in life, becoming one of the first artists to work seriously with computers. this interest in technology,
coupled with vanderbeek's affinity for the work of canadian media theorist marshall mcluhan, led to the
conception of his most ambitious unrealized project, the 'movie-drome' (1965). vanderbeek's idea was to create
an international networked image-bank--accessible and customizable by the local public--for the presentation of
images and video. had vanderbeek's idea been realized, it would have created a rough prototype of the internet,
but the outlandish expense and attendant technological roadblocks ensured that the project remained a dream.
a model movie-drome was constructed from material salvaged from an abandoned grain silo, where he staged
encompassing multi-media events using film and slide projectors to fill the interior with a rotating collage of
images. he later created smaller, moveable versions called 'electric assemblages,' a version of which is featured
at the biennale.



image © designboom

image © designboom



image © designboom



image © designboom



image © designboom