Derrynan III 1967

Curator: Harold Cohen's "Derrynan III," held here at the Tate, strikes me as something of a playful paradox. At first glance, it's almost unsettling. Editor: Unsettling? I see it as strangely soothing. All those uniform blue dots scattered over a sea of pixelated green. It feels almost digitally organic. What’s so paradoxical? Curator: Well, it seems so obviously a product of the digital age, yet it's signed and dated 1967. That’s pre-internet! What material processes were available to Cohen at the time to achieve this effect? Editor: That's exactly it! Screen printing was a well-established technique by then, allowing for precise repetition. The "digital" effect is actually achieved through incredibly careful, labor-intensive processes. It prefigures our digital aesthetic through analog means. Curator: Yes, you're right. It is a fascinating meditation on control and chance, the handmade and the machine-made. It anticipates so much. Editor: It makes me think about our current obsession with digital art and how it often obscures the human labor still involved. A beautiful reminder that technology always exists within a social context.