Shoe-Field (1982–89) by Sonya Rapoport (1923, Brookline, Massachusetts – 2015, Berkeley, California) uses the computer to record, process and display data that the artist collected about shoes. The work was first presented with a series of computer printouts analysing her own collection of shoes at Berkeley Computer Systems store in 1982. It was accompanied by a participatory performance entitled A Shoe-In. Participants had their shoes photographed and were asked questions about their relationship to their shoes (how much they liked them, why they bought them, etc.). Their responses were recorded, entered into a computer and each participant was assigned a ‘Shoe Psyche’ charge – from -2 to +2. Through an ‘Electric Field Theory’ program which translated data into numbers, Rapoport created computer-generated prints and a series of works including artist books and software. Some were also printed as floor tiles that were incorporated within interactive works in 1986 and 1989.

The installation presented here brings together two artist books from 1983 and 1986, computer printouts and a computer-generated map with polaroids visualising the participants’ data from 1982. Shoe-Field humorously folds emotions into a quantitative analysis using computing. It combines technology, science and psychology in a singular way to explore the aesthetic potential of data while also anticipating the use of computerised information to monitor consumer behaviour.