Zach Blas is presenting a lecture Conditions are Now in Transition: the Local, The Border at London’s Goldsmiths on November 23.
As an artist engaging with technology, queerness, and politics, Blas’ talk will focus on his recent work and writing around the limitations of digital calculation and visualisation of biometric recognition.
Eduoard Gilssant’s writing on opacity and his critique of transparency will present as a major reference point in the artist’s work towards a theory of ‘informatic opacity’, along with his own dystopian installations ‘Face Cages’ and his ‘Facial Weaponisation Suite’ project in thinking of art in technology.
‘The Standard Model’, a publication project by the MFA Curating students of Goldsmiths, holds its fundraiser tonight at The Chapel Bar in London, starting at 8pm.
The publication, created as the final iteration of the Masters programme, is a collaborative book operating as a platform for new voices in the field of curation, with everything from formal essays to experimental creative writing and recorded conversations between curators and artists contributing to modern discussions on the strategies, methods, and challenges of contemporary curation.
Tonight’s event, which costs £7,50 and comes with two free drinks, music by Europa Mondial (Jack and Joel), as well as Anne de Boer and Cory Scozzari, and live visuals from Derzu Campos and Barbara Gamper, comes in addition to the Kickstarter created for the production and publication of the book.
Goldsmiths University is putting on the Creative Machine group show this month, taking place at the university’s gallery and running from November 6 to November 14.
The group show, which brings 22 different artists and art collectives for a major exhibition exploring “the twilight world of human/machine creativity” and comprised of a multitude of media, including video and computer art, installations, AI and robotics, as well as apps created by leading artists form the university and international artists invited to participate.
Preceding the exhibition’s opening night, which begins at 6pm, Goldsmiths University is also hosting The Human Interactive Conference, running throughout the day on November 6 and featuring a host of academic speakers and industry leaders discussing computer games, robotics, neuroscience, bioinformatics and computer art, among other topics.
The Department of Visual Cultures at London’s Goldsmiths is launching book series Visual Cultures as… on February 5.
Interrogating divergent perspectives on the field of Visual Cultures, the series of short, co-authored paperbacks each interrogate a topic, in two essays, in one book. The first three titles feature Visual Cultures as …Seriousness, …Recollection and, most interestingly, …Objects and Affects. They’ll be supplemented on the night by a panel discussion featuring their respective authors –including Gavin Butt, Jorella Andrews, Lynn Turner, Astrid Schmetterling, Simon O’Sullivan and Irit Rogoff –as well as music by Otolith Group members Mark Fisher and Kodwo Eshun.
Problem-solving is at the core of design and for Goldsmiths MA Design show Tilt at Hoxton Gallery at the Arch, running September 19 to 22, some of those problems include London food waste, the perpetual pursuit of more space and future landfill. Hence the fox diners, Japanese modular shelving and a design disposal manifesto being just some of the conundrums showing during London Design Festival.
Covering industrial, communication and spatial design, 40 projects from graduates who’ve already shown at Milan Salone, 100% Design and been recognised at the A’Design Awards, there’s little doubt of the world-class ideas generation no doubt on display.
Across Goldsmiths’ various venues, this year’s roster of artists at Degree Shows 2013have constructed passenger jet cabins, smoke-filled bathrooms and holistic waiting rooms scattered with everything from snakes to ultra-violet drawings. Each space is a result of a battle between students to bag a place in which to exhibit; all of them a showcase of where this generation’s interests lie. Undoubtedly the shadow of yesteryear’s alumni, such as the Young British Artists, still hangs over the south London College but the younger ones have also had their say into how their imaginations have been shaped.
In particular there are threads to be woven between Lucky PDF and graduates who play with pop-culture and post-internet theory, choosing to group themselves under the banner of Consensual Hallucinations. A term borrowed from science fiction author William Gibson’s book Neuromancer, they express a wish to engage with the ideal of individual ownership over a virtual reality, the power to connect or disconnect others and surf pleasurably with no physical threat.
Billy Howard, ‘Price Constant Elevation (2013). Video Still.
Rebecca Cooper has the same poetry for titles as Damien Hirst. ‘The Simultaneous Death and Birth of my Social Self: Part One: Preliminary’ cleverly uses a water cooler as a readymade. On its own, it’s a simple “one liner” of an artwork but, as part of an installation, it’s a key to a larger narrative focused on social networking. A built-in iPad links those who type out messages onto its screen to a larger chat room and wireless headphones hooked up to a soundtrack of Hip Hop and Dance music clips. They’re in turn linked to a mapped projection across a series of plains that garnered many laughs, and even a few people dancing.
Billy Howard also has a water cooler in his space, but this time as a prop to set the scene for a waiting room where spectators sit before being invited in for the main event. It turns out to be a high-octane music video filled with green screens, analogue effects and a knowledgeable character, (taken from a 1970s science show) whose dialogue informs us on mass-media theory, reveals the process behind the work’s construction and speaks on the importance of energy, as particles on the screen break up.
In contrast, Racheal Crowther uses a small television screen with a video of a snake sliding across the white tiled floor where the viewer is standing to create a hallucinatory effect, in which grapes are dipped in pink clay, synthetic fur creates a pool of dirt and a sense of past and present is disrupted.
Across Goldsmiths’ BA Fine Art show a host of strong students experimented with performance art, aural and visual crossover and even computer binary as language. Nevertheless, it’s here in particular that three individuals found a shared interdisciplinary interest, with a clear debt to predecessors but also a fresh eye on the future. **
