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Curators

The Koppel Project

Artists

Merritt Moore

Ben Cullen Williams

Claire Luxton

Boano Prišmontas

James Dovey

The Koppel Project are excited to be collaborating with TKP Campus resident Dr Merritt Moore to curate an interactive exhibition featuring the work of Claire Luxton and Ben Cullen Williams, both represented by MTArt Agency.

Loading... will explore the dynamic intersections between humanity and technology; the spaces between dreaming and data, code and catharsis. The collaboration will feature the exhibition of Luxton's vivid photographs exploring the void-within-a-void of technological dreaming during lockdown; installations by Williams, looking at non-spaces of hypermodernity and the dialogue between technological experience and landscape; and a interactive element programmed by Moore and her dance partner Baryshnibot exploring liminal interplay and non-verbal, embodied communication between humans and machines.

We have both a physical and emotional relationship with technology. In the pandemic especially, tech has become space for continuing our lives. In months of isolation we have looked for a new version of life through an artificial reality, seeking our connection to the earth through screens and wires. Is this filling void with a void? Or can we now imagine a world where machines and humans coexist as a “we” not as us and them? Where does the separation exist? When do machines stop being our "tool" and become something that is (if not equal) at least complementary to us?

Moore’s interactive piece, Re:Bot , around which Loading… was curated, transforms the environment of the art gallery with a spatial device able to sense human movements and trigger an interaction with the robot. The dialogue between humans and machines is therefore created by movement, encouraging the public to explore the space and their “partner” in the same way a dancer does.

The show asks the artists and their audience whether, in the technological space catering to our desire for authentic experiences and a connection to our bodies and each other, is it all just virtual, simulated, a dream? Is it a new version of reality? Or is it both? This paradox is also explored in the work of Luxton and Cullen, making Loading… a timely investigation into the bleeding boundaries between life and tech.

The exhibition opens by appointment from the 12th of April 2021, with the robot joining from 29th April.

Featuring further collaboration from: James Dovey, Boano Prišmontas, Parth Sharma and Akilesh Manchikanti.

With special thanks to Universal Robots.