Disposable Bodies

The starting point of the project is the phenomenon of the Women Astronomical Computers, a group of mostly anonymous women who combed the night sky layer by layer and mapped and classified stars through photographic glass plates at the Harvard Observatory in the late 19th century. The analogous beginnings of computational processes and data analysis by so-called human computers highlight the complex relationship between technology and corporeality. By interweaving the sociological-historical position of the researchers and the fictional personal story of one of them, Disposable Bodies explores how data has been processed throughout history and how it is interpreted today. By shifting between the roles of observer and active protagonist, it questions who has the power to control the narrative and direct our gaze.

Following the work of A.H.K. at the observatory, the installation unfolds through three video chapters. With the increasingly difficult distinction between her own body and the multitude of bodies of other workers, A.H.K. gradually dissolves in countless mathematical calculations, columns and numbers, and continues her work of weaving the threads of the universe in the form of computer software. Through the gradual dissolution of the physical body of the stargazer and its fusion into a computational programme that counts satellites instead of stars, Lara Reichmann tells the story of the passage of a multiplicity of human bodies into a mechanical system of the virtual.

(Written by Lara Mejač)