Clean room, University of Lille, France Possibly 1989 - 2006

Editor: Here we have Lewis Baltz's "Clean Room, University of Lille, France," from, possibly, between 1989 and 2006, a film photograph. It gives me a strange feeling of cold, sterile efficiency. There's something unsettling about the lack of human presence. What do you see in it? Curator: Ah, Baltz. He often played with that feeling, didn't he? For me, this image is less about sterile efficiency and more about the sublime anonymity of technology. It whispers of scientific advancement, of course, but also of a kind of technological wilderness, untouched by human emotion, a landscape defined by cables and humming machines. Don't you feel the strange tension? A possible utopia, constructed with precision and logic... and a silent warning about the increasing automation of our world? Editor: I suppose I do feel that tension now that you point it out. It's funny how cold it seemed to me, and you're getting this very "hands-off-able utopia." Is it maybe a dark view of modernism, you think? Curator: Modernism certainly aspired to the clean lines, the order, even the impersonality we see here. But Baltz isn’t simply celebrating or condemning it. He’s holding up a mirror, a cool, detached mirror, to its promises and its potential consequences. It makes me ask myself, if everything could be perfect, planned out by machines, how would that influence humanity, or erase us? Editor: That's a little dystopian... but the picture gets even more interesting considering that. This makes me want to see his other work, maybe there is a more clear message when viewing the works as a whole. Curator: Exactly. Baltz presents more questions than answers, doesn't he? Which is, of course, the best kind of art. Editor: I agree! This was a lot to take in and helped me open my eyes and gain insight; thanks a bunch.