In ’Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate,’ rule-breaking becomes the rule - 48 hills
▻https://48hills.org/2022/10/in-do-not-fold-spindle-or-mutilate-rule-breaking-becomes-the-rule
The title of the exhibition “Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate,” co-presented through December 3 by Casemore and Rena Bransten Galleries, draws upon a slogan from the 1964 Free Speech Movement that Stanford communications Professor Fred Turner addresses in his fascinating 2008 book From Counterculture to Cyberculture.
Turner explains that when UC Berkeley students protested the computerization of student records, a protesting student pinned a punchcard to his chest printed with, “I am a UC student. Please do not fold, spindle, or mutilate me.” (Turner also speaks of the subject in this 2007 talk at Stanford.) The students viewed the university as an institution rife with mechanization that was whittling away their humanity.
Given this extremely rich and local history, the content of “Do Not Fold” unfortunately shies away from addressing the confluence of counterculture and technology, though that legacy is referenced by the exhibition. Taking a more formalist approach, the galleries have positioned the titular slogan as a strategy for artists breaking gallery, disciplinary, and formal rules.