We are as gods and might as well get good at it

He played a prominent role in the counter culture scene in California during the 1960s, specifically in the Francisco Bay Area. In his Whole Earth Catalog he wrote about ecology but also about new technology and their mutual relation. Brand believed passionately in the power of self-schooling and new technology and coined the term ‘personal computer’.

“Ready or not, computers are coming to the people,” he wrote in an article entitled “Spacewar: Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums”, published in 1972 in Rolling Stone. “That’s good news, maybe the best since psychedelics”

He was also involved with the organisation of the first international hackers meeting in 1984. In his Whole Earth Catalog one could find useful information for living self-sufficiently: reviews about books and gardening tools, maps, special clothing, welding equipment, personal computers etc.

With ‘We are as gods and might as well get good at it’, we investigate the legacy and actual meaning of the Whole Earth Catalog exactly 50 years after it was founded. For example, what influence did it have on the spread of information and the value attributed to personal experience?

The title of the exhibition is the sentence that Brand wrote on the title page of the Whole Earth Catalog. “Up until now power has been in the hands of government, big business, formal education and the church…But now, a realm of intimate, personal power is developing – power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the Whole Earth Catalog”.

Whoever reads this, notices that Brand sounds remarkably modern. In your mind’s eye you can see the Google search machines. Sharing your own experiences and personal information, self-enterprise, limiting your reliance on external powers (government, God) – is a vision that spawned the whole internet culture.

Brand’s vision of the finite nature of our planet which necessitates a broader perspective and a more sustainable relation with our environment is very much in sync with our times and echoes our anxiety about man’s detrimental influence on the earth.