Dada by the Numbers

Abstract

Although much of the acclaim surrounding Bruce Nauman's recent retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art rests on topical factors (white male rage, a cowboy persona, sensationalism, the endorsement of prominent museums-not the least of which is MOMA itself), the ongoing influence of Nauman's oeuvre pertains almost exclusively to what Walter Benjamin called the modern experience of shock: the impact of technological sensory data on human subjectivity. This kind of shock, which is primarily physiological but which nonetheless always carries a moral charge, largely results from mimetic devices like the camera, the tape recorder, film, and video-all of which convert the detached contemplation of visual imagery into an immediate, tactile encounter. Insofar as Bruce Nauman's work concerns the receptivity of his audience, his artistic stature is bound up with the momentum of these forces in mass culture. The exact nature of the audience's