Rare earth

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Rare earth elements are the game-changing foundation of our most powerful innovationsmobile phones, iPods and iPads, liquid crystal displays, LEDs, light bulbs, CDs and DVDs. Often described as conflict materials due to the limited number of accessible mines, they are also integral to cyber-warfare weapon systems, medical technologies, hybrid vehicles, wind turbines, and green energy applications. Consequently, rare earth elements play an increasing role in global affairs and facilitate our changing self-image. Capturing some of todays emergent myths and identities, the well-designed exhibition catalog brings together 17 elementswork by 10 artists and 7 theorists including artists Camille Henrot, The Otolith Group, Ai Weiwei, sociologist and design theorist Benjamin H. Bratton, Finnish new media theorist Jussi Parikka and political theorist Jane Bennett, among others. An attempt to define the spirit of an age, Rare Earth explores how todays myths, identities, and cosmologies relate to current technology while challenging the rhetoric of immateriality.