) who have created a new work,
titled Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium, that uses the Internet to access and utilise
live stock market data. Companies trading on the world's stock exchanges will be
represented as constellations of stars in the night sky, drifting and flickering in response
to fluctuations in the financial markets. An ecology of artificial-life creatures will live within
this financial universe, and feed from the trading activity of the stars. The creatures will
evolve and will attempt to navigate and predict the turbulent trading patterns of the
markets.
Redundant Technology Initiative ( www.lowtech.org) who recycle discarded, outmoded
computers and bring them back to life. This installation, entitled Free Agent, re-purposes
computer trash as a tool to search for the word 'free' (one of the most frequent search
terms on the internet). Mixing video footage and the results of internet searches, this
networked low-tech video wall displays images and text which scroll across thirty-six
screens; a demonstration of the potential of no-cost technology and a stunning display of
retro computer graphics, in which images are rendered as abstract blocks of garbled text.
Jon Thomson and Alison Craighead ( www.thomson-craighead.net) whose installation is
entitled CNN Interactive just got more interactive. This involves the intervention by the
artists into the existing CNN news site, whereby the viewer is able to select their own
'audio mood' music in relation to the news item they are viewing. Moods to select from
include 'jubilant', 'melancholy' and 'dramatic', leading to surreal and often hilarious
juxtapositions. Instead of using standard on-screen architecture such as the Netscape or
Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers, the interface has been specifically designed by the
artists for use in the gallery and parodies the touch screen multi-media stations used by
corporate media companies.
The exhibition is curated by Julian Stallabrass, Lecturer in Art History at the Courtauld
Institute of Art and former Paul Mellon Centre Fellow at Tate Britain, who will publish a
book on Internet art through Tate Publishing later in 2001. The Art Now programme is
supported by Patrons of New Art.
IMAGE:
Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway
Detail from first sketch for constellation map,
Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium 2001
Re-created by Simeon Portway, Courtesy the artists
Related Links:
Art Now is a programme of exhibitions that aims to generate discussion and promote
awareness of new art in Britain. It also highlights new technologies, and Art Now:Art and
Money Online, sponsored by Reuters, presents three installations by artists whose work
refers to and makes use of the Internet. These works will examine in different ways the
current and rapid commercialisation of the Internet, and the growing culture of
e-commerce.
