June 3 – July 15, 2005
“Rounding Error” will run continuously in the Media Gallery at Neutral Ground June 3 – July 15, 2005, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm according the fhe following schedule:
11:00 – 1:00pm – 3 years of COCOSOLIDC1T1 Comissioning
1:00 – 3:00pm – Broken Channel
3:00 – 5:00pm – Ghost Storeys
Rounding error – 3 years of C0C0S0L1DC1T1 projects
C0C0S0L1DC1T1 work out of the UK, Canada and France and have been curating sound, Internet, video and film based artists from around the world into galleries, museums, festivals and CD/DVD projects for 3 years.
Broken Channel (A project undertaken with The Futuresonic Festival, UK). Broken Channel presents artistic interpretations of the contemporary experience of surveillance, from a range of leading international artists working in sound and video.
We live in a time in which surveillance is running out of control, entering all aspects of people’s day to day lives, encountered not only in the spectacular cases of terrorist scares, but also in the mundane realities of supermarkets and motorways, store cards and credit ratings, product tags and mobile phones. The spread of the control space of surveillance runs largely unchecked and unopposed, at times even celebrated, as the visible majority are only too happy to exchange their freedoms for Airmiles, Cashback or the assurance that it is now safe to walk back home. Hidden spaces disappear as the curtain of privacy is rolled back, and this is as much an issue for cultural difference and subcultures that thrive out of the spot-light, as it is for carjacker or the migrants without the proper papers. Both a political and cultural force for change, discussion is silenced as the security blanket is inexorably rolled out. Broken Channel does not pretend to check the spread of surveillance. Rather, it seeks to simply open up alternative spaces in which discordant voices can be heard, by presenting diverse visions of a world beset by surveillance technologies, of a control society running out of control.
This series of works comes from well established artists who have been exhibiting internationally at venues such as The Museum of Modern Art, NYC and the Venice Biennale for a decade or more.
Ghost Storeys is a multimedia project that proposes to create a multidimensional sonic and visual narrative that reflects the central themes of socio-political phantom spaces, virtual architecture, and identity within an urban context where all these layers of meaning intersect, come into conflict, and become open to mutation. Ghost Storeys explores the idea that the phantom, virtual, or mutating building is a common aspect of contemporary urban existence. Examples of virtual or ephemeral architecture abound in contemporary culture – from the imaginary architecture of film, Manga and Japanim through the virtual “rooms” of cyberspace to actual post-modern architecture that melds the new with the old. In a crowded world, buildings are often superimposed one upon the other, or old buildings are incorporated into the bodies of new edifices. The form remains as a spectral reminder of the function, purpose or “life”, of the older building that no longer exists. Ghost Storeys and superstitions continue to haunt contemporary architecture even as form and function are increasingly rationalised. It is interesting to note that few modern skyscrapers have a 13th floor designated as such. The 13th floor functions as a ghost storey haunting a supposedly rational modern society.
Kristian and Aoike will explore issues of individual and national identity within the context of the interactivity of contemporary audio and visual culture as it exists on a global scale, both within popular – such as Japanim and Manga – and experimental aesthetic culture. One facet of this cultural exploration will be an investigation into the cultural meaning and traditions of ghosts in both cultures. Though the work process of Ghost Storeys involves multiple collaborators, the intent is to emphasize Kristian and Aoike’s investigation of their individual and collective cultural identities within a global context.
The artists wish to thank the British Arts Council and the Arts Council of England.
