SPEAKERS: MIRADOR COLLECTIVE | ALIX PAUL | AMY GOODCHILD | NICOLA PLANT
Our FLUX: Social events are a new type of event for 2019. These events are primarily for networking and making connections within the creative media arts community. Hosted by our FLUX co-founders Maria Almena, Oliver Gingrich and Aphra Shemza, they will provide a relaxed space for the facilitation of networking and collaboration. In our intimate setting at the Library London, the audience will get the opportunity to meet key artists within the media art scene in London face to face and to discuss ideas, practices and preeminent concepts in today’s Media Arts.
Each event, artists meet and discuss their work with the audience. We invite all artists and creative practitioners working with art and technology who want to present to email us on info@fluxevents.co.uk. Our aim is to encourage discourse and create a space for communication and the exchange of ideas, providing some much needed critical discussion and technical advice for artists working in the field of the media arts. Come and join us to explore unchartered territories within the media arts and meet fellow practitioners.
MIRADOR COLLECTIVE present two works at the social:
I CAN’T SPEAK WITH A WEAPON
The Syrian refugee crisis is the subject of the virtual reality experience I Can’t Speak with a Weapon. Years after the Syrian civil war started, millions of Syrian people are still struggling for their lives. The war is not only about political oppression within Syria, but also about Syria’s sophisticated relationships with other countries, such as the US, Russia, and China, as well as about the influence of the change of political structure in other Arab countries and more. This complexity makes it difficult for the audience of the media to reflect upon the issue.
The research for this project is an exploration of a new medium and technology in the field of journalism. With virtual reality technology and critical design research methodologies, I Can’t Speak with a Weapon aims to bring the audience closer to the issue and invites them to approach it from new critical perspectives.
NO! I DON’T WANT TO TAKE AN UBER, I WANT TO BE A STREET HUNTER. [FEMME] URBAN EXPLORER.
‘Welcome to Femme City, where all the spaces have been designed based on women’s experiences in the city. Become a street hunter and face the same situations. Get ready!’ As it says in the introduction to the interactive videogame, this project is based on female wandering and how women experience the city in a world that is dominated by gender inequalities. In their daily life, women confront unwanted experiences and encounters; Rebecca Solnit says that a woman’s walk can often be considered a performance, rather than a mode of transport. When women walk they become more visible than ever, even if the reality is a certain desire to blend into the surroundings, to be imperceptible. An understanding of the duality of the word ‘invisibility’ is key to this project: on the one hand, there is the lack of representation of women when planning the cities, and on the other, there is the physical aspect of invisibility, the willingness of women to blend into the environment.
http://www.miradorcollective.com/
About Alix Paul
Alix De Bretagne is a British Conceptual Artist and Human Rights activist. Through the medium of fine art, De Bretagne expresses his views and personal feelings on the socio-political aspect of life and dedicates his attention to understanding his own white privilege and how it can be put to good use in the service of human dignity. A Senior Creative by trade, De Bretagne combines new and old technology in order to express his vision and give live to new ideas.
The new collection: Ultra Virtue
Ultra Virtue is a collection of graffiti art that explores what British society deems as supreme virtues today and explores the paradoxical means by which society enforces morality based on these virtues. Using Ultra Violet light and screen printing, De Bretagne embeds hidden art that is not visible in daylight.
The piece that will be presented: This is not a white man (De Bretagne, 2019)
The symbolism in this piece is a statement against frequent yet sometimes involuntary racism. UV light will reveal a silhouette of a man that at first glance we may perceive as male and Caucasian. De Bretagne invites us to consider that it is impossible to know simply from the silhouette, furthermore challenging preconceptions about race and how it does/doesn’t define who we are as a people, and the means by which we as a society involuntarily whitewash ideas and concepts. Under the banner of this silhouette we are all equal and demand respect uniformly.
www.debretagne.art
Amy Goodchild
When a group of people are engaged in an experience, a powerful feeling that "this is happening to all of us together" can arise. Much like an individual can enter a state of 'flow' when they are fully immersed in an activity, a group can have 'swing' when participants connect through a shared experience.
I create interactive environments and installations which facilitate group experience, offering ways for people to share interaction. While keyboards, mice and touchscreens are practical for individuals, designing an interface for a group presents a new challenge. I'm using new technologies to develop interfaces that suit multiple users and shape group experiences.
www.amygoodchild.com
www.whenindome.com
About Nicola Plant
Nicola Plant is new media artist, researcher and programmer based in London. Lately, Nicola has created interactive artworks exploring expressive movement within VR. Her work and research is focussed on investigating how it can be possible to translate the visceral experience of our inner flux of emotions and sensation into a communicative form of movement. Her most recent work, Parallax, a 2-person interactive VR artwork, allows communication between audience members by performing hand expressions and gestures to sculpt a shared malleable object existing in the virtual space between them. By materialising the embodied dynamics of human expression onto a virtual entity, the piece aims for this expression to cross the boundary from an inner private world to a virtual human connection.
nicolaplant.co.uk
I CAN’T SPEAK WITH A WEAPON
The Syrian refugee crisis is the subject of the virtual reality experience I Can’t Speak with a Weapon. Years after the Syrian civil war started, millions of Syrian people are still struggling for their lives. The war is not only about political oppression within Syria, but also about Syria’s sophisticated relationships with other countries, such as the US, Russia, and China, as well as about the influence of the change of political structure in other Arab countries and more. This complexity makes it difficult for the audience of the media to reflect upon the issue.
The research for this project is an exploration of a new medium and technology in the field of journalism. With virtual reality technology and critical design research methodologies, I Can’t Speak with a Weapon aims to bring the audience closer to the issue and invites them to approach it from new critical perspectives.
NO! I DON’T WANT TO TAKE AN UBER, I WANT TO BE A STREET HUNTER. [FEMME] URBAN EXPLORER.
‘Welcome to Femme City, where all the spaces have been designed based on women’s experiences in the city. Become a street hunter and face the same situations. Get ready!’ As it says in the introduction to the interactive videogame, this project is based on female wandering and how women experience the city in a world that is dominated by gender inequalities. In their daily life, women confront unwanted experiences and encounters; Rebecca Solnit says that a woman’s walk can often be considered a performance, rather than a mode of transport. When women walk they become more visible than ever, even if the reality is a certain desire to blend into the surroundings, to be imperceptible. An understanding of the duality of the word ‘invisibility’ is key to this project: on the one hand, there is the lack of representation of women when planning the cities, and on the other, there is the physical aspect of invisibility, the willingness of women to blend into the environment.
http://www.miradorcollective.com/
About Alix Paul
Alix De Bretagne is a British Conceptual Artist and Human Rights activist. Through the medium of fine art, De Bretagne expresses his views and personal feelings on the socio-political aspect of life and dedicates his attention to understanding his own white privilege and how it can be put to good use in the service of human dignity. A Senior Creative by trade, De Bretagne combines new and old technology in order to express his vision and give live to new ideas.
The new collection: Ultra Virtue
Ultra Virtue is a collection of graffiti art that explores what British society deems as supreme virtues today and explores the paradoxical means by which society enforces morality based on these virtues. Using Ultra Violet light and screen printing, De Bretagne embeds hidden art that is not visible in daylight.
The piece that will be presented: This is not a white man (De Bretagne, 2019)
The symbolism in this piece is a statement against frequent yet sometimes involuntary racism. UV light will reveal a silhouette of a man that at first glance we may perceive as male and Caucasian. De Bretagne invites us to consider that it is impossible to know simply from the silhouette, furthermore challenging preconceptions about race and how it does/doesn’t define who we are as a people, and the means by which we as a society involuntarily whitewash ideas and concepts. Under the banner of this silhouette we are all equal and demand respect uniformly.
www.debretagne.art
Amy Goodchild
When a group of people are engaged in an experience, a powerful feeling that "this is happening to all of us together" can arise. Much like an individual can enter a state of 'flow' when they are fully immersed in an activity, a group can have 'swing' when participants connect through a shared experience.
I create interactive environments and installations which facilitate group experience, offering ways for people to share interaction. While keyboards, mice and touchscreens are practical for individuals, designing an interface for a group presents a new challenge. I'm using new technologies to develop interfaces that suit multiple users and shape group experiences.
www.amygoodchild.com
www.whenindome.com
About Nicola Plant
Nicola Plant is new media artist, researcher and programmer based in London. Lately, Nicola has created interactive artworks exploring expressive movement within VR. Her work and research is focussed on investigating how it can be possible to translate the visceral experience of our inner flux of emotions and sensation into a communicative form of movement. Her most recent work, Parallax, a 2-person interactive VR artwork, allows communication between audience members by performing hand expressions and gestures to sculpt a shared malleable object existing in the virtual space between them. By materialising the embodied dynamics of human expression onto a virtual entity, the piece aims for this expression to cross the boundary from an inner private world to a virtual human connection.
nicolaplant.co.uk