A while back I ventured over to Liverpool to the F.A.C.T facility, where Factory Records legend, Peter Saville, had launched a collaborative exhibition with Andy McCluskey (of OMD) & Hari Haralambous, one of the most successful 'video artists' of today. This exhibit highlights the aforementioned shift in the way in which galleries handle the inception of technological art installations.
It would be easy to venture into the space, presuming that the artifacts, (a series of ambient digital films, fragmented audio broadcasts and most relevantly; electronic boards, fields and elements which required human interaction to work) each individual aspects of the installation, were separate standalone works of art.
It was when you took a step back, that the realisation washed over you, it wasn't as simple as that, For the most part, the 'energy suite' required the collaborative interaction of more than one person, using the electrical fields within our combined bodies, to power, direct or activate the reactions in the physical elements; for example, I spent a good ten minutes sharing a grip on a wooden steering wheel, tapping different parts of my girlfriends arm, which generated different synthesized tones; we had become the instrument, and as such, were the ones being watched by people moving through the gallery.
It became even more apparent when you entered the fragmented orchestra installation, a maze of speakers hung by chains from the ceiling, each of them rotating freely and occasionally spitting out radio static in an ever shifting manner, It was only when you made out other figures weaving between the chains from the darkness of the room, that the space unveiled it's true purpose.
The most important piece for me though, was in the projected space downstairs, quite simply a darkened room sat with a 50ft projection of fluxuating television static, you were handed large white framed glasses as you entered the space and whilst no-one seemed to manage more than around ten minutes in there, the purpose came in seeing the light bouncing off those sitting in the reclined sofa in the centre of the room, offering a more than poignant commmentary on the vegetation of contemporary society living their lives through their television sets.
