Perry Chen,
Computers in Crisis, 2014

An investigation into the phenomenon, and our memory of the phenomenon, of Y2K.

Co-presented by the New Museum and Rhizome in conjunction with Creative Time Reports for the New Museum's First Look program. Exhibition listing.

“This multifaceted project comprises several components. Through documentation of books that were produced in the run-up to Y2K, Chen’s archive will illuminate the cultural backdrop of the anticipated crisis, surfacing our collective anxieties in the face of this vast uncertainty. Chen will further elaborate on these themes in an accompanying essay and in Y2K+15, an event at the New Museum on December 12, 2014, that includes conversations with three key figures from the Y2K era.”

Perry Chen is an artist and the founder of Kickstarter. Learn more. He’s interviewed about Computers in Crisis in Bomb Magazine here.


I. Y2K Book Archive

The Y2K Book Archive is a physical and digital archive comprised of 155 books in eleven categories.

Conspiracy: Conspiracy theories related to Y2K.

Cookbook: Recipes and cooking guides for post-Y2K survival.

Hoax: Arguments against excessive Y2K concerns and doomsayers.

Management: Business management and preparedness guides for Y2K.

Niche: Guides focused on a very specific audience or topic related to Y2K.

Opportunity: Methods to profit from the uncertainty and effects of Y2K.

Overview: Explanations contextualizing Y2K without offering specific guidance. 

Personal Finance: Y2K financial planning and preparedness guides for individuals and families.

Programming: Instructions and tactics for correcting Y2K software and technical issues.

Religious: Y2K analysis and guidance from a religious perspective.

Survival Guide: Y2K survival planning and preparedness guides.

II. Perry Chen: Y2K+15

New Museum, New York. December 12, 2014.

"Through television footage and books produced in the run-up to Y2K, Chen will illuminate the cultural backdrop of the anticipated crisis, surfacing our collective anxieties in the face of this vast uncertainty. Key players, including David Eddy, who coined the term “Y2K,” Margaret Anderson, formerly of the Center for Y2K and Society, and Shaunti Feldhahn, author of Y2K: The Millennium Bug—A Balanced Christian Response, will convene this evening to share their firsthand accounts of the time, offering a deeper investigation into the preparations for, climate around, and legacy of Y2K and complicating the prevailing narrative that Y2K was a 'non-event.'"

Program

  1. Exhibition of the Y2K Book archive.

  2. Introduction by curator and director of Rhizome, Michael Conner.

  3. 16m single-channel video “Computers in Crisis”, composed from archival material.

  4. Discussion with Margaret Anderson, David Eddy, and Shaunti Feldhahn.

See video and select images from Y2K+15.

III. Y2K: Welcome to the Jungle

Accompanying essay published in Creative Time Reports on Dec 9, 2014

“Y2K did not lead to disaster. But it also did not lead to answers. And until it became a punch line fading away in our memories, Y2K crystallized something bigger: that we were drifting into a new era in which our understanding of the complex systems we were creating was becoming truly limited, even as our dependence on them increased. And that we would need to learn to negotiate this new paradigm.” - excerpt from Y2K: Welcome to the Jungle.

Read Y2K: Welcome to the Jungle.