Created by emilio.jp between 2009 and 2015, "Macintosh lab" (http://emilio.jp/macintoshlab/) is a work that reinterprets the Mac OS desktop as a "material for expression." The desktop is not only a familiar digital space essential to our daily lives and work, but it also serves as a "site of generation" where data is created, transformed, and disappears. The interface plays a crucial role in providing visual cues for manipulating such data.
In Macintosh lab, the interface—which is typically expected to be seamless and transparent—goes beyond its functional role and is visualized as a material that composes beauty. Emilio.jp deliberately alters the inherent functions and effects of the OS, intentionally deviating from its normal behavior. This is also an attempt to create a new aesthetic derived from the structure and functions within the specific digital environment of Macintosh.
For this exhibition, Macintosh lab will be remade and presented using a large LED display. Through automated programmatic operations, this work captures aesthetic moments born from the digital environment, making it a form of performance art. By redefining the nature of the desktop space, this exhibition uncovers the gaps within the neutrality and rationality of technology that we unconsciously accept and offers new perspectives from those spaces.