Amending Care

An Archaeology of Maintenance
Shannon Mattern | wordsinspace.net
Carleton University | September 14, 2018

Anni Albers
Emma Lee, WHYY
Jake May, Independent
Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo, AP
Marian Wang, ProPublica
Huynh Jet, National Geographic’s Your Shot
Via Duke University Libraries
Shiplap Ontology (Yes, this is a niche joke.)
Fiona Smith
Bridge Repair (Golden Gate), Dick Schneider, 1970, via California State Library; Smithsonian Archives
 Rust

Via Boston Globe

 Dust

Dust Breeding (Duchamp’s Large Glass with Dust Motes), May Ray, 1920
Cracks
 Corrosion

Million Dollar Homepage

James Corner / Alex McLean, Taking Measures Across the American Landscape
Martha Rosler, Cleaning the Drapes, 1967-72
 Rust

Via Boston Globe

Edward Burtynsky, Highway #2…, 2003
David Boyer, National Geographic
Didier Courbot, Needs, 1999
Disorientalism, An Archaeology
of the Mistaken Present, 2007
World Bank, Lebanon Roads and Employment Project
Via Quartz
G. Ramakrishna, The Hindu
Via Switch on Paper; Wired
Edward Burtynsky, Shipbreaking #4
Via International Water Management Institute
A. J. Sisco, National Trust for Historic Preservation
 Dust

Dust Breeding (Duchamp’s Large Glass with Dust Motes), May Ray, 1920
Jeff Wall, Morning Cleaning, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona, 1999
Hironaka & Suib, Routine Maintenance, 2014
Sharon Lockhart,
Lunch Break Installation, 2003
Juliette Spertus
Denver Post
Storrs Agricultural College, 1893
Bettye Lane, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, 1977
Bassem Saad, Maids’ Rooms, via Failed Architecture
Ramiro Gomez
Chantal Ackerman, Saute ma ville, 1968
Teresa Margolis’s Cleaning, 2009 Venice Biennale
Cleaners mop with the “blood” of their deceased family members
Jorge Otero Pailos, Ethics of Dust
Cracks
John Malmin, LA TImes
Todd McClellan
Disorientalism, TV Maintenance, 2007
Elias Sime, reclaimed electronic parts on panel
Jenna Burrell
Lara Houston
Lisa Parks
Jérôme Denis and David Pontille
Agbogbloshie Dump, Ghana: Andrew McConnell; earthwatch
Reparation Hardware, Ilana Babou-Harris
 Corrosion

Million Dollar Homepage

And here we enter the final act of the talk,
where I’m addressing virtual forms of
maintenance that don’t readily lend themselves
to visualization, thus necessitating my occasional
turn to unfortunate stock imagery. Sorry.
Atari ST Glitch, Jeff Donaldson
Ant Scott
Refik Anadol
Peter Tarka
Kader Attia, Traditional Repair, Immaterial Injury, 2014
 Thank you.
And thanks to all those on Twitter who provided
examples of maintenance art: @briansholis,
@jrmdns, @landlibrarian, @laurensx, @litherland,
@michhham, @mjeffreywright, @nthylstrup,
@paolo_patelli, @salmashamel, @syd_a_h,
@topleftbrick, @zachmelzer, and @zurkow

Kader Attia, Traditional Repair, Immaterial Injury, 2014