Decode
Digital technology is providing new tools for artists. Innovative, often interactive, displays use generative software, animation and other responsive technologies to install a ‘live’ element into contemporary artworks. Some works exist in a state of perpetual evolution; others are altered by the behaviour of the spectator.
From designs that draw on the barest fundamentals of code – the zeros and ones of the binary system – written by a single programmer, to art that encompasses a global collective of online creativity, many of the exhibits here defy traditional design categories. They blur the boundaries between practices, between programming and performance, creator and participant.
Decode looks at three current themes within digital design:
Code shows how computer code, whether bespoke and tailored, or hacked and shared, has become a new design tool
Interactivitypresents works that respond to our physical presence
Network charts or reworks the traces we leave behind
Make Out 2009
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is an internationally renowned electronic artist. He develops large-scale interactive installations for public spaces, usually deploying new technologies and custom-made physical interfaces. From afar, the installation looks like a wall of small pixels that form a wave of subtle peach patterns in repetition…upon closer inspection however…see what i mean ?!
Stockspace 2009
Marius Watz builds his own generative software to make ever-changing and dynamic animations. Stockspace is a graphic visualization of the stock market. The animations are created in real time , the colors and shapes changing in response to fluctuations in economic trading.
About the Event
The exhibition explores three themes: Code presents pieces that use computer code to create new works and looks at how code can be programmed to create constantly fluid and ever-changing works. Interactivity looks at works that are directly influenced by the viewer. Visitors will be invited to interact with and contribute to the development of the exhibits. Networkfocuses on works that comment on and utilise the digital traces left behind by everyday communications and looks at how advanced technologies and the internet have enabled new types of social interaction and mediums of self-expression.
Decode will be on display in The Porter Gallery. Exhibits can also be found on the V&A Exhibition Road façade, in the Grand Entrance, John Madejski Garden and South Kensington tunnel, as well as in the Science Museum.
