Social Synthetic is the first comprehensive publication on the varied oeuvre of Seth Price (born 1973). Published on the occasion of the exhibition Seth Price: Social Synthetic at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, April 15 - Deptember 3, 2017 and Museum Brandhorst, Munich, October 12, 2017 - March 18, 2018.

How can art explore the self under technological pressure? In Price’s work, this is often expressed in terms of the “skins” of surface, packaging and wrapping: he has made photographic studies of a person’s skin obtained through the technologies Google employs for mapping, vacuum-formed plastic reliefs presenting a body part stranded in plastic and large wall sculptures depicting the negative space between two people engaged in intimate action, greatly enlarged from a tiny internet jpeg. Price’s work offers a fascinating engagement with our technologically mediated lives; these issues are tackled in this volume by a veritable who’s-who of artists and writers working on similar themes, including Cory Arcangel, Ed Halter, Branden Joseph, John Kelsey, Michelle Kuo, Rachel Kushner, Laura Owens and Ariana Reines.