Aram Bartholl

english / deutsch
Works Exhibitions & Dates Public. & Press Blog Resume Contact


4 Google Portraits at 'Social Media' Pace Gallery NYC, 2011,


'Penelope Umbrico' Google search english ,70 x 70 cm, edding on paper


'Jason Smith' Google search english,70 x 70 cm, edding on paper


'Ai Weiwei' Google search chinese, 70 x 70 cm, charcoal on paper


'Aram Bartholl' Google search german, 70 x 70 cm, stamp ink on paper


Detail 'Ai Weiwei' Google search chinese


Detail 'Aram Bartholl' Google search german



Four Google self-protraits commissioned by Microwave Festival Hong Kong , 2009

















'Google Portrait', comission by Daniel Michelis 2007

Google Portrait Series
drawings
2007-2011

Four Google portraits at 'Social Media' PaceMcGill / Pace Gallery NYC, September 16 - October 15, 2011

'Penelope Umbrico' Google search english
70 x 70 cm, edding on paper

'Jason Smith' Google search english,
70 x 70 cm, edding on paper

'Ai Weiwei' Google search chinese,
70 x 70 cm, charcoal on paper

'Aram Bartholl' Google search german,
70 x 70 cm, stamp ink on paper


A Google Portrait is a drawing which contains the URL of a Google search for a person in encoded form. Any smart phone is capable to decode the matrix-code (QR- code) with a barcode reader app. As a result the phone runs a Google search on the portrayed person in the browser.

Almost everyone can be found by name on Google nowadays. Even people who never used computers can be found because their names appear in scanned books on the internet. Almost everybody has at least once googled himself. 'Ego-surfing' is a very popular way to see what people find out about you googling your name. In that way the first 10 entries of a Google search result page represent the modern portrait. Who is this person? In what context does the name appear? What are the top links? Are there other people with same or similar name in the results? The portrait dynamically changes over time depending on the Google algorithms, the language of the search and of course by the activities of the person. Due to the omnipresence of Google people often care very much about their Google portrait and sometimes even hire specialized services to have the result page altered 'actively'.

Four Google self-portraits commissioned by Microwave Festival, Hong Kong, 2009. Each QR-code represents a visual encryption of a search on 'Aram Bartholl' in a specific language on Google.

'Aram Bartholl', Google search german
dimensions: 75 x 75 cm,
media: transparent paper, edding 850

'Aram Bartholl', Google search english
dimensions: 75 x 75 cm,
media: transparent paper, edding 750

'Aram Bartholl', Google search chinese
dimensions: 75 x 75 cm,
media: transparent paper stamp, stamp ink

'Aram Bartholl', Google search korean
dimensions:75 x 75 cm,
media: transparent paper, pastel chalk


Shown at::


Pictures and blog posts:

cc Some rights reserved. All content on this webpage is licensed under Creative Commons license by-nc-sa 3.0 . Aram Bartholl 2010