Curse of The Walking Techbane
Mathew Kneebone

If our understanding of complex technology as end-users is inadequate then how do we respond to its malfunction? When faced with a meandering cell-phone signal we might desperately wave our phone in the air to improve reception. We might blame a rainy day for unstable Wi-Fi, or perhaps a passerby for blocking its invisible path. The language we use to describe these occurrences suddenly imbues machines with a temperamental personality: drained batteries will suddenly “die”, an erratic phone becomes “possessed”, and a touch screen responds “crazily”. How might an engineer respond to malfunction by comparison? In his book Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension (2016), complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman talks about how technical systems such as infrastructure and computers have reached such a point of complexity that no single individual, either engineer or end-user, can claim full understanding. Supplanting the notion of the engineer as contemporary magician Arbesman says that the projection of meaning onto malfunction is “no longer an attitude reserved for laypeople, it occurs even among the developers of technology themselves.” He continues with an anecdote told by engineer Lee Felsenstein in which an engineering manager had to leave the room whenever a piece of software was being demonstrated; his presence alone seemingly caused things to malfunction. None of the engineers could find a logical solution to the problem and so instead resigned it to the realm of metaphysics.

For Curse of The Walking Techbane, Mathew Kneebone explores the metaphysical meanings attributed to malfunction and technical complexity. Works on show link human energy fields, magnetism, and auras with machines through video loops of homopolar motors, troubleshooting monologues, electro-photograms, 19th-century aura viewing fluids, dysfunctional prototypes, and musical lights.

With voice work performed by Abe Bernstein, Lisa Sniderman, Brian Vouglas, and Susannah Wood.