Lewisham Arthouse, 140 Lewisham Way, London SE14 6PD
13th-17th November 2023 (Header image ‘Child of the Atom Courtesy of David Blandy and LUX, London.)
A week-long exhibition called ‘all watched over by machines of tight embrace’ showcasing six artists opened at Lewisham Arthouse on Monday 13 November curated by London-based artist Dian Joy, a British-Nigerian transdisciplinary artist recently shortlisted for the Lewisham Arthouse Graduate Award.
Dian will be exhibiting their work as part of artist duo Dian and Lucy, both of whom were selected to take part in international art commissioner Mediale’s Immersive Assembly Vol 3: Truth and Testimony (IA3), a themed multidisciplinary, virtual artists residency supported by Jerwood Developing Artists Fund and Glasshouse International Centre for Music (formerly Sage Gateshead).
As a duo, Dian Joy and Lucy Wheeler are concerned with social realities in the era of post-truth and artificial intelligence. Through their research, nurtured through Mediale’s IA3 residency, they deliberate on the potential for human agency under systems of exponential control. Their call to action is to democratise and demystify technology, allowing the audience to reflect on their digital footprint, and provide better awareness of how we navigate digital spaces in the era of algorithmization and online surveillance. Their collaboration consists of creative exchange between critical analysis, visual storytelling and game engine design and development.
Their artwork Two Front Encounter, 2023, Interactive invites viewers into a dynamic exchange with a digital realm. Through game-engine software, the work enables an inquisitive confrontation between a physical human presence, and machine learning technologies. As the audience approaches the screen the character within the virtual space intuitively tracks and responds to their face tracking data, evidencing a mutual interdependence between a physical reality and a digital reality. Within this space between the screen, there is an imitated performance between virtual entity, and viewer. By instigating this dance of intelligences, the work invites contemplation on the fluidity and “inessentiality” of what we consider to be recognisable life.
This exhibition delves into the complex interplay between emerging technologies and human existence. Rather than setting up a bifurcated genealogy of nature vs technology–the roar of technological progress in one corner, and a floundering natural world in the other–the works in this show confront the challenges and opportunities presented by these innovations. They delve into the joys and the perils of technology’s ability to connect our lives across geographies, glimpse into our social systems, rethink the materiality of the world around us, and challenge what we consider to be recognisable life. In doing so, this show aims to spark conversations about our place within an ever-evolving landscape.
