Cray supercomputer, C.E.R.N., Geneva, Switzerland Possibly 1989 - 2006

Lewis Baltz made this photograph of the Cray supercomputer at C.E.R.N. in Geneva, Switzerland. The forms are so clean! Those cylindrical shapes with their bright blue and yellow stripes—they're almost playful, like giant Lego blocks. But there's something unsettling about the scene, too. The cool, detached observation, the clinical palette. I imagine Baltz, setting up his camera, thinking about the convergence of the organic and the technological, questioning the way our lives are increasingly mediated by these machines. He’s like a modern-day Canaletto quietly documenting this strange new world. It almost feels like a stage set, doesn't it? The architecture and the machines have a strange dialogue, a sort of silent, unsettling communication. I can see that the cold detachment of Baltz's aesthetic has influenced so many artists, from the Bechers to Andreas Gursky. Art is such a conversation across time, each artist picking up where the other leaves off. It's about how our brains interpret a new reality.