Carla Herrera-Prats:Transactions

In 1926 Carl Brigham developed the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) that has since been administered to millions of students every year in order for them to begin their college educations. The SAT is only the first of a long list of standardized tests that have been designed according to the Jeffersonian principle of providing equal opportunity in education to all citizens of the United States.

Effective implementation of standardized tests required the development of technology in order to print, distribute, and more importantly, score student answers through an answer sheet system. In 1934 three companies in particular raced to patent a more efficient turnkey solution, seeking to accurately correct more tests more quickly. In doing so IBM, Educational Test Service (ETS), and the Measurement Research Center (originally part of Iowa University) developed a technology that, in the 1970s, would facilitate the invention of the ballot machine as well as our contemporary desktop scanners.

Prep Materials, presented as a slide projection, a drawing, and a series of pictures, takes its departure from archival research within these three institutions. Moving beyond the common criticism against standardization and its supposed translation into better education, this exhibition focuses on the fallacy of relying on "efficient" technologies in order to realize the principles of democracy.