LACMA exhibition 'Digital Witness' traces subversive digital art from 1980s to present

LACMA presents 'Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film,' an exhibition exploring digital manipulation's cultural impact over four decades. Featuring over 150 works, the show includes video art, album covers, and historic computers, highlighting countercultural movements. Pen & Pixel's 1990s rap album covers, with their ironic clip-art style, mocked conservative critiques of hip-hop. The demoscene, an anticapitalist subculture using Commodore Amiga computers, shared freeware animations and music, subverting software distribution. Early Apple Macintosh and Commodore Amiga models are displayed, illustrating a wider 1980s computer market. Casey Kauffmann's installation 'It's Over Bitch' (2022) features stacked televisions. The exhibition runs through 13 July 2025 in Los Angeles, with sponsorship from Adobe, and addresses challenges in exhibiting moving images. Works like clips from 'Life of Pi' (2012) are shown, though selections sometimes lack clear rationale. The display avoids siloing works behind curtains, using wall-mounted screens and pedestals instead.