“Inventing Abstraction 1910 – 1925” is an interactive exhibit created by the MOMA to showcase how abstraction, modernism’s greatest innovation, was created and nurtured. For three and a half months, the MOMA made daily posts that supplemented their physical exhibition. The internet presence of this project was hosted on Tumblr, back when it was still good.
The nodes in this graph are artists, composers, dancers, and poets that helped establish abstraction. These individuals utilized a variety of mediums and artforms, and the edges that connect each nodes show that there was at least one recorded meeting between the individuals. This shows us how abstraction in its infancy was a cross-medium movement that had transnational collaboration. Seeing these connections allowed for one to fully understand the exhibit, that abstraction is about relationships.
This diagram was created by creating an excel spreadsheet with all the names, and then using a dummy variable to show two individuals meeting or knowing one another. They went through each person and each relationship and entered a 1 if they met, and a 0 otherwise. Paul Ingram from Columbia Business School compiled the data, then graphic designers Ingrid Chou and Sabine Dowek used Alfred Barr Jr.’s chart as inspiration and created the diagram on an Apple computer (I couldn’t tell which program they used through the video). Nodes with more connections were larger, showing those at the crossroads and forefront of abstraction.
“on Tumblr, back when it was still good” got me lol.
What I’m curious about is when this project was made – you mention they used an Apple computer, but that seems kind of an odd detail to mention unless it was at a time when that would have meant something special. Their site isn’t working for me for some reason (gets stuck on one page) or I’d figure that out myself.
Hi Lewis, I also looked at this project! My favorite part of your post is when you described how the project was created, because this isn’t something I explored myself. When I was looking at the bigger project, it could be a little overwhelming to see all the connections at once. You are right though that it serves it purpose: it shows that abstraction was collaborative and an interconnected artistic movement.