Through a series of recent single-channel videos, Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet examines the changing understanding and representation of the self via digital technology and the Internet. Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s term “mirror stage” refers to the stage of human development in which the infant first encounters an image of itself (often via a mirror) and begins to perceive the notion of selfhood. With this concept as its starting point, this exhibition explores how we as human beings now reencounter and reimagine the self via the myriad of screens we experience in our digital lives (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.).

Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and on view April 10 through December 6, 2015, is part of the Concentrations series of project-based exhibitions by international emerging and under-represented artists. The series began in 1981 as part of the DMA’s commitment to showing the work of living artists, while preserving the excitement of the work.

“The Dallas Museum of Art is pleased to organzie and present Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage, introducing the work of eight multimedia artists to the community of North Texas,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. “For more than thirty years, Concentrations has showcased installations of over fifty emerging artists, with the goal of offering their innovative new work to DMA audiences.”

This exhibition proposes that our confrontation with the screen establishes the relationship between ourselves and reality anew, allowing for infinitely mediated and malleable notions of the self that were unimaginable prior to the advent of the Internet. At times schizophrenic and narcissistic, the work included in Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage employs a variety of technologies such as motion capture, 3-D animation, and webcam footage to explore various facets of how we come to know and define ourselves as individuals in today's “post-Internet" world.

“The artists included in Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage take a critical look at how the Internet has fundamentally changed how we as human beings come to know ourselves and our place in the world,” said Gabriel Ritter, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art. “Their works consider an elastic notion of the self that stretches the limits of representation, presenting a mirror image of identity in the digital age that is both fascinating and disturbing.”

Over the course of eight months, the exhibition will display works by an international roster of artists— including Ed Atkins, Trisha Baga, Antoine Catala, Aleksandra Domanović, Jon Rafman, Jacolby Satterwhite, Hito Steyerl, and Ryan Trecartin—with a different artist’s work on view each month.

Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet is included in the Museum’s free general admission. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color illustrated brochure with an essay by exhibition curator Gabriel Ritter, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art. Montreal-based artist Jon Rafman, the second artist featured in the Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage rotation, will perform as the iconic Kool-Aid Man as part of his ongoing performances within Second Life during the May Late Night on Friday, May 15. Artists Ed Atkins and Jacolby Satterwhite will participate in a Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage roundtable discussion moderated by exhibition curator Gabriel Ritter scheduled for late October 2015; programming details will be forthcoming. Additional programming, including gallery talks, will be scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition. For dates, prices, and details, visit DMA.org.