California artist Deborah Aschheim’s installation is the latest in a series that she describes as “nervous systems for buildings.” Entitled Neural Architecture, these installations explore the intersection of surveillance electronics, neurobiology, and architecture. Aschheim conceives of buildings as metaphors for complex biological organisms, with skin and a skeletal framework, and mechanical systems for respiration and circulation.

Neural Architecture imagines the subtle mutation of surveillance technology; in her installations, the gallery space appears to have grown its own sensory capabilities out of equipment that was installed to protect the building’s occupants. Clear vinyl tubing, incandescent light, and “nerve cell” television monitors are joined to home security detectors so that visitors can witness themselves and others being observed, allowing a level of interactivity unusual in museum spaces. In this new work, Aschheim plays on the Frist Center’s origins as a post office and the Art Deco motifs that refer to networks of science and transportation.

For programming related to this exhibition, please visit the calendar section of the website.


2005 Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery Exhibition Sponsor: Welling LaGrone and Morgan Keegan.

Deborah Aschheim, Panopticon (neural architecture no. 4), 2004; Installation view from the Otis College of Art + Design, Los Angeles; Courtesy of the artist