Captive Portals, 19th – 21st August

Posted on 17/08/2016 by hellocatfood

From 19th to 21st August I’ll have some new work installed on routers throughout Nantes, France at the Electropixel festival for the Captive Portals project by Tim Shaw and

Wi-Fi networks populate our urban environments and create intersecting boundaries within physical space. These territories provide us with new and interesting topographies especially if we consider the creative potential of these new spaces.

Captive portals provide a temporary gateway to the Internet, generally a place for businesses to harvest data but for us a place to provocatively host digital artworks. With this we creatively explore captive portal technology as a place to embed artwork in public space.

This curated collection of artworks will exist in the urban environment around Nantes hosted on small autonomous Wi-Fi routers. Each work is available through a web-enable device (smart phone, tablet or laptop). To access the piece connect to the Wi-Fi name related to the artwork and a captive portal will appear on screen.

For this project I created a new work, Freemium Basics:

freemiumbasics

“If you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold”. This phrase said by Andrew Lewis aka blue_beetle in 2010 should make any user wary of using free services. The promises of corporations offering “exclusive” “premium” gifts – loyalty cards, free wifi, vouchers etc – is that it will make your life better, easier, help you, help others, and ultimately make the world a better place.

By accepting these “gifts” we give permission to these corporations to enter our lives, track our social, spending, and general living habits. With this information they can greatly influence the opinion and habits of us and our social circles. These free “gifts”, then, come at a price.

Using Free Basics (previously Internet.org) as its target, which is Facebook’s failed attempt to gift “free internet” to India, Freemium Basics sheds light on the dangers of clicking “I Accept” on free services without considering the costs.

If you happen to be in Nantes log on!!!

Short Circuit – Terminal 1 – 3rd September – 29th October

Posted on 16/08/2016 by hellocatfood

From 3rd September (my cakeday) to 29th I’ll have some newly commissioned work on show at Short Circuit at Stryx.

Short Circuit is an ambitious international touring group show devised by Independent Curator, Aly Grimes, and consisting of nine New Media artists and collectives in an attempt to re-assess the archetypal framework of a travelling exhibition. It proposes a new experimental model of display realised in three different locations across Europe to include Birmingham, Copenhagen and Venice. The project’s structure aims to investigate new ways that exhibition spaces can present touring shows in the Digital Age and will manifest as a highly experimental research project susceptible to failure. It might glitch, trip, malfunction or ‘short circuit’.

A touring exhibition or ‘travelling exhibit’ is a type of exhibition that is available for circulation to one or more venues in addition to the premises of the organiser. Its structure typically comprises a grouping of works that tour together, arriving as a complete set at each participating venue. This method enables the sharing of new ideas, draws connections between artists across geographical boundaries, attracts new audiences, allows for the diffusion of knowledge and local cultures, provides fresh interpretations of artists’ work and brings opportunities to share production costs.

Other artists included in the exhibition include: Emily Mulenga, Juneau Projects, The Cool Couple, Kensuke Koike and Ryts Monet, Honey Beckerlee, Mads Damsbo and Johan Knattrup Jensen and David Stjernholm.

For the opening event on 2nd September I’ll be doing a Sonification Studies performance. The piece hasn’t been performed in Birmingham since one if its first debuts at the Sonification event at Vivid Projects in 2014. Come to see how the piece has developed since then. Stay for the art.

There will be other events for this exhibition including talks, workshops and an Augmented Reality event from Juneau Projects. Check out the website and Facebook Page for more information.

Coding Camo Workshop – 15th – 17th August

Posted on 09/08/2016 by hellocatfood

The Office for Art, Design and Technology (led by Ryan Hughes) is delivering its Camouflage Season as a part of Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum’s exhibition, Concealment and Deception and as a part of Leamington Camouflage Festival. For its Coding Camo Workshop on the 17th August I’ll be delivering a Pure Data workshop at the headquarters of Office for Art, Design and Technology at Eaton House, Coventry.

This workshop will teach basic computer code using Processing, Pure Data and Live Code Lab and will result in a collaborative performance. The workshop will be led by Ryan Hughes and participants will benefit from 2 days working with established visiting practitioners, Antonio Roberts and Ashley James Brown. The final day of the workshop will focus on collaboratively composing a new work for performance which explores what camouflage might look like in the age of big data, ubiquitous wi-fi and so called smart devices.

Tickets for this four day workshop and performance are £40 (£30 concessions/under 20s) and can be obtained by sending to Ryan Hughes (rhpcdrs@gmail.com) a ~200 word statement explaining how the workshop would benefit your practice. Deadline is 9th August.

Cephalopod, 5th August

Posted on 04/08/2016 by hellocatfood

On Friday 5th August Data Destructive Art (Study 1) by myself and Lucy Hutchinson (as Evasive Manoeuvres) will be screening at Cephalopod at Supernormal Festival in Oxfordshire.

Cephalopod is a collaborative film-based hub taking residence for the weekend of Supernormal 2016. Their striking mollusc-inspired shed hidden deep in the woods will host a scheduled selection of events from BEEF members and friends; including a 16mm film drop in workshop as the cephalopod transforms into a darkroom, screenings from BEEF members & friends, and a performance of experimental live soundscapes from Saltings & sound explorations and excursions from BEEF members.

Data Destructive Art (Study 1) is one of the first output from Evasive Manoeuvres, a project by myself and Lucy Hutchinson that I previously introduced here. If you’re at Supernormal Festival check out it and stand by for more output from us!

Thanks to BEEF for the invite!