Dandelion, 2006, Sennep / Yoke. © Sennep
Decode: Digital Design Sensations, December 8 2009 – April 11 2010, www.vam.ac.uk/decode
Decode: Digital Design Sensations sees the world of digital code and data shed its geeky, unfathomable image and blossom into some breathtakingly beautiful exhibits that are enormous fun to play with.
Code and data are used as the raw material for the pieces, and like a sculptor would take a piece of wood or stone, international artists and designers have shaped 35 surprisingly diverse works.
Videogrid, 2008, Ross Phillips. Courtesy V&A
Many of the pieces are constantly evolving and changing and visitors often play a key role in determining what the exhibition will look like for future viewers by physically taking control or inputting their own information.
As well as using human movement and sound, some of the exhibits have an uncanny ability to mimic real life – the most unnerving example being Opto Isolator II which leaves you questioning whether the machine does in fact have a soul.
This mechanical eye looks exactly like a human eye and really justifies that old cliché of 'following you around the room'. It even blinks whenever the person in front of it does.
(Above) Body Paint at Tyneside Cinema, 2009, Mehmet Akten. Courtesy V&A
In Oasis II Everyware, the viewer digs around in a real (as in non-virtual) bed of coarse black sand to reveal a pool of light that is soon filled with digital creatures that swarm around and bask in the light. It’s as much fun as rock pooling but you’re less likely to be taken out by a wave or bitten by anything.
For sheer crowd-pleasing fun and entertainment, exhibition neighbours Dandelion Body Paint and Videogrid certainly steal the show. In Dandelion a special infrared powered hairdryer blows the seeds off a giant dandelion and Body Paint allows you to create spectacular psychedelic splashes as you hurl digital paint around the walls of the V&A.
Oasis II, 2008, Everyware. Courtesy V&A
Videogrid starts as a huge empty screen at the beginning of the exhibition and gradually fills with clips of visitors performing for a video camera. The panel of people shows some doing amusing things and others who have not realised they are being recorded.
“We are really hoping to attract as wide an audience as possible and the exhibition is accessible for everyone – the interactives are really popular with children and I have seen older visitors playing on the Body Paint installation like they are wildly conducting an orchestra,” said Decode: Digital design co-curator Shane Walter, director of digital arts organisation onedotzero.
Opto-Isolator, 2007, Golan Levin with Greg Balthus. © John Berens, courtesy bitforms gallery nyc
He added: “Many of these pieces do not have a fixed point and are continually developing so that every time you revisit the exhibition it will be a completely new experience.”
Decode: Digital Design Sensations appeals to both the child and the geek within and the layout of the pieces means you can see the finished product, and in some cases, the technical wizardry inside them.
You can also get involved with reprogramming the marketing video for the exhibition and the V&A will show selected entries on the London underground. Go to http://www.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode/recodegallery for more information.
