Narrator: In the late 1960s, Mel Bochner participated in a program collaborating with scientists and engineers in a lab. He was struck by the prevailing importance of systems of measurement. As a joke, he began measuring random objects around the lab, noting the dimensions for his colleagues. This experience led to room-sized works like this one, documenting the measurements of an entire space.
Bochner is associated with Conceptual art, which emphasizes ideas over objects and materials. Conceptual artists question our ways of understanding the world. Bochner said this interest started when he worked for his father, a sign painter.
Artist, Mel Bochner: I grew up in an atmosphere where paints and brushes and drawing were around me all the time. And so I learned all the tricks of the trade at a very early age. At the same time, there was a certain sense of rebellion. I just wasn't satisfied with what I call the manual training aspect of art and design.
I was very interested in math and science, philosophy, and art history. As I got more and more into it, I thought that art was more and more about ideas.