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.

Short Circuit takes the conventional model of a touring exhibition as its point of departure. Whilst many of the aforementioned goals of a typical touring show will remain the same, crucial differences exist. Firstly, this new structure requires artworks to arrive at each exhibition venue independently using the Internet as a conduit, and secondly, the selected artworks never assemble as a grouping at the beginning of the project.

­­Referencing the notions of both electrical and touring ‘circuits’, the exhibition will travel in a geographical clock-wise loop beginning at Stryx (Birmingham), to A plus A Gallery (Venice) and completing at New Shelter Plan (Copenhagen). These venues or ‘terminals’ have been selected due to their physical commonalities providing neutral exhibition environments in which to best test this new exhibition model. In addition, they all comprise experimental project spaces that foster international collaborations and regularly exhibit emerging and mid-career New Media artists.

SHORT CIRCUIT
+ Opens – 02.09.2016, 6.30 – 10pm for September Digbeth First Friday with a live performance of Sonification
Studies by Antonio Roberts.
Exhibition Days – 03.09 – 29.10.2016, Thursdays to Saturdays, 12 – 4pm
STRYX, Minerva Works, Birmingham B5 5RS
+ 27.09.2016 – Public talk at Ikon Gallery in association with New Art West Midlands’ Curator Bursary Award
+ 07.10.2016, 6.30 – 8.30pm – Late night exhibition opening for October Digbeth First Friday with an augmented reality workshop by Juneau Projects

ARTISTS
Emily Mulenga, Juneau Projects and Antonio Roberts (Birmingham)
The Cool Couple, Kensuke Koike and Ryts Monet (Venice)
Honey Beckerlee, Mads Damsbo and Johan Knattrup Jensen and David Stjernholm (Copenhagen)